Brussels, 01/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission adopted a communication on Tuesday 1 September on the participation of the EU in the 7th Forest Europe ministerial conference to be held in Madrid on 20-21 October.
More than 40 European states, including all member states of the European Union, together with the European Union (represented by the European Commission) will attend the conference, which is organised jointly by Spain and Slovakia.
The 7th ministerial conference in Madrid will address: - the green economy and social aspects of sustainable forest management; - protection of forests in a changing environment; - the future direction of Forest Europe. It is planned that a general declaration and two resolutions, one relating to the first and the other to the second of the above-mentioned topics will be submitted to the ministers. The proposed declaration and resolutions are not legally-binding instruments, but establish political commitments by the conference participants. In addition, it is also expected that a “decision” will be put to the ministers, to be adopted by consensus, on the future direction of Forest Europe.
EU participation in the conference is necessary, the Commission says, since: - the conference relates to the implementation at the pan-European level of the international commitments taken, not only by the member states but also by the European Union; - as a signatory to the Strasbourg, Helsinki, Lisbon, Vienna, Warsaw and Oslo resolutions, the European Union is directly involved in their follow-up and implementation; - with the Strasbourg, Helsinki, Lisbon, Vienna, Warsaw and Oslo resolutions and those contemplated for Madrid, the countries of Europe will have set themselves fairly detailed guidelines on forest policy laying down broad objectives and strengthening their coordination and cooperation in this field.
This is consistent with the new EU forest strategy for forests and the forest-based sector.
The forest policy discussion under the ministerial conferences, renamed Forest Europe in 2009, is an inter-governmental, country-led process launched in 1990 with the objective of promoting the sustainable management of Europe's forests. It operates by voluntary commitments of its current 47 signatories. The European Union has been a party in the process since its beginning, and, so far, has signed all its resolutions and declarations.
Since 1990, six Forest Europe Ministerial Conferences (previously known as Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe) have taken place. At the 6th, held in Oslo (Norway) in June 2011, ministers adopted European 2020 targets for the protection and sustainable management of forests, and took a decision to launch negotiations on a legally binding agreement on forests in Europe.
The 7th Forest Europe ministerial conference will be a step towards the implementation in Europe's forests of the various commitments taken at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development which took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, and also the commitments taken at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, and at the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF, 2000 to the present). (Lionel Changeur)