During a debate in Luxembourg on Tuesday 12 October, many EU agriculture ministers expressed the view that the approach advocated by the European Commission in its forestry strategy does not ensure a balance between the three pillars of forest sustainability (environmental, economic and social).
Ministers from several countries (Scandinavian countries, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Estonia) criticised the Commission for not taking into account subsidiarity and Member States’ competences in forest management.
Italy, Luxembourg, Cyprus, the Netherlands and others generally welcomed the presentation of this forest strategy.
“There is no common forestry policy”, Spain recalled.
“Multifunctionality is the basis of our forestry policy”, said the French representative. He advocated “active” forest management to enable adaptation to climate change and the economic exploitation of forests.
Sweden felt that the current draft strategy could lead to further centralisation of forest management.
Additionally, several Member States were critical of the usefulness of the legislative proposal concerning forest monitoring, reporting and data collection in the EU. Many countries already have national forest inventories, for example. Therefore, before making a new proposal, a precise evaluation of what already exists should be made, according to several ministers.
Finally, many ministers expressed doubts about the usefulness of new indicators, thresholds or additional ranges for sustainable forest management.
Janusz Wojciechowski, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, took note of the countries’ remarks regarding respect for subsidiarity. He promised that an assessment will be made of the legal basis of the legislative proposals. The EU has a series of competences shared with Member States (forests, climate, energy, disaster prevention, rural development, etc.), the Commissioner recalled. The Commission exercises its competences regarding forests in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, Mr Wojciechowski said in defence.
Draft conclusions. At the same time, work continues at a technical level to draft the Council of the EU’s conclusions on the forest strategy. The Council hopes to adopt these conclusions on 15 November. “The responsibility for forests lies with the Member States and all forest-related decisions and policies in the EU must respect the principle of proportionality and subsidiarity and Member States’ competence in this field”, reads the latest draft conclusions, obtained by EUROPE.
Link to the latest draft conclusions on forests, dated 4 October: https://bit.ly/3as2MIT (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)