The main objective of the study was to find out whether the multi-spectral and multi-temporal classification of AVHRR satelite data could lead to an operational method to establish a 1-km pan-European Land Cover Database for environmental monitoring. The classification methodology was applied to a vast area including France and direct surroundings. Major conclusions are: decision keys should be developed that exploit both the use of multi-temporal composites and multi-spectral data ; the current classification method allows only distinction of main land cover types ; due to the mixed pixel problem the contents of an AVHRR derived land cover class can differ substantially over Europe ; the main advantages of AVHRR derived land cover data for environmental monitoring at a European scale are its high spatial detail and its consistent quality - the main disadvantage is the absence of specific classes, such as permanent crops, which is a very important class for calculations of pesticide loads.