Earth's ecosystems are undergoing profound and accelerating transformation because of climate change and other human-caused pressures. Changes in natural disturbance regimes play an important and conspicuous role in these transformations. In Europe, recent bark beetle outbreaks have garnered much attention as they have affected large swathes of spruce forests, particularly in central and Eastern Europe. Remote sensing is instrumental in revealing and understanding global change and much progress has been made in using it to monitor bark beetle outbreaks. On 22 November 2022, an online JRC Expert Meeting reviewed the state-of-the-art and challenges in using remote sensing to detect and map bark beetle outbreaks in Europe. It was attended by more than 40 scientists and representatives of three European Commission DGs. Through three invited talks and a discussion among its participants, the meeting then explored opportunities for further progress and collaboration in this area of research, as well as ways to facilitate intercomparison, synthesis and uptake of monitoring methods.