A draft EU Council conclusion is quite critical of the content of the EU Forest Strategy proposed by the European Commission on 16 July (see EUROPE 12764/1).
The Agriculture Council plans to adopt conclusions assessing the forestry strategy as proposed by the Commission in the near future.
The first draft of the conclusions, as seen by EUROPE, regrets the lack of socio-economic measures in the strategy and is concerned about the issue of Member States’ competence in forestry.
The draft EU Council conclusions express the doubts of Member States about the need for new certification schemes (voluntary schemes already exist in some countries).
The draft conclusions state not only that the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU does not refer to a common EU forestry policy, but also that some of the initiatives in the strategy (legislative proposal on the forest observation framework) “could lead to an increase in burdensome and ineffective regulations”.
MEPs and several countries have already criticised the strategy presented by the Commission (see EUROPE 12783/8).
Link to the draft conclusions on the forestry strategy: https://bit.ly/3C8PVqY (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)