Brussels, 08/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The first forum organised on the "wood industry", organised on 6 September in Strasbourg by the European Commission, gathered some 82,000 enterprises representing that whole sector, in the production of wood for publishing. Organised in line with the Commission Communication from October 1999 on the competitiveness of the wood industry and the derived industries, this forum had as aim to discuss the competitiveness and sustainable development of the industry. It concentrated on two themes: 1)_ the strategy for adapting the industry to e-commerce, notably through new methods of management and "business to business" commerce through electronic means, 2) climatic changes and the role of forests as "carbon wells" and carbon reserves in the light of the up-coming conference of the members of the Kyoto protocol that will take place in November in the Hague.
Our duty is to define the right basic conditions for the development of European competitiveness, noted the Commissioner responsible for enterprise policy, Erkii Liikanen. He insisted on this issue over the initiatives underway in the framework of the "e-Europe" action plan for the development of the Internet within two year, as well as the discussions underway in Council over the European patent and the Directive on copy right in information society.
In the field of the environment, "we should create the conditions to improve the results, either in the form of legislation, or in the form of voluntary agreements". The Commissioner assured that "we will be actively involved" in the preparation of negotiations for the Convention on climatic changes next November, where the rules, methods and guidelines for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol will be decided. Among these, the more fundamental rules for the wood industry will be those applied to carbon wells and for activities such as the management of forests and the replacement of wood products".
The Commission spokesperson recalled that the "wood industry" includes 82,000 companies with a combined output valued at EUR 400 billion, over 3 million employees, and account for one-eighth of EU manufacturing industry output and value added. The sector represented at the Forum in Strasbourg were woodworking, pulp, paper and board production, paper and board converting and packaging, furniture, printing, publishing and the forestry sector. Other participants included officials from the Community institutions, EU Member State representatives, members of the European parliament, stakeholders from research, education, training, trade unions and environmental NGOs.