Brussels, 26/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The new EU forest strategy must focus on sustainable managements of forests, promote efficient use of their raw products, increase competitiveness of forest-related industry, and thus increase employment in the sector. This was requested by the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee when it adopted (34 votes for, 5 against, with 4 abstentions) the report by Elisabeth Köstinger (EPP, Austria), rapporteur on the draft Parliament's feedback to the Commission's communication on the new EU forest strategy.
Around 20 compromise amendments were ratified. MEPs also asked for better control of EU policies linked to forestry.
The EU needs an updated and comprehensive joint strategy to tackle current trans-border challenges such as forest fires, climate change, natural disasters or invasive alien species.
The Agriculture committee threw its support behind Commission's plan to develop, in close cooperation with member states, local authorities and forest owners, an ambitious, objective and demonstrable set of criteria and indicators for sustainable management of forests. Putting concrete measures in place must remain subject of national regulations, MEPs stressed these must not increase the administrative burden for governments or operators. Increased but sustainable use of materials like timber and cork would not only protect the environment, but could effectively boost the competitiveness of European forest sector and increase forest-related employment, MEPs say.
Although the Agriculture Committee opposes legally binding rules for prioritising the uses of wood as this could restrict the energy market and the development of new uses of biomass, MEPs agree that priority should be given to locally sourced wood to minimise the carbon footprint created by overseas transport.
Since the forest-based industries have great potential for growth MEPs called on the Commission to include them in current EU programmes (such as Horizon 2020 and COSME - the programme for the competitiveness of SMEs).
Concerned about the pace of world deforestation, MEPs called on the Commission to publish the awaited review of the effectiveness of the EU Timber Regulation, aimed at combatting illegal logging and the placement of illegal timber on the EU market and to develop an action plan on deforestation and forest degradation. (Lionel Changeur)