It is the first time that three EU Commissioners jointly support one issue. “Wood as energy source in the enlarging Europe”, is the name of the exploratory opinion that will now be developed in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) lead-managed by the Finnish Member Seppo Kallio
All three EU Commissioners Mariann Fischer Boel, Agriculture and Rural Development,  Olli Rehn, Enlargement and Adris Piebalgs, Energy and Transport see the EESC contribution as valuable in the light of further enlargements and of the Lisbon strategy.

“The exploratory opinion will assess the current use of wood energy in Europe and its technological challenges as well as consequences of the greater use of wood energy” as Seppo Kallio mentioned. The potential of new employment strategies through the greater use of wood energy especially with respect to the less populated areas could give hope for sustainable rural development.
Currently only 55% of the yearly growth of wood is harvested, that shows that there is a real chance of increasing the use of the renewable raw material wood. The revival for the traditional use of wood for energy purposes might provide an additional source of income in the future especially for small-scale private forest owners.
The new wave of using renewable energy could be seen as a win-win-win situation: combating climate change, increasing employment – especially in rural areas – and ensuring motivation for sustainable forest management.
Due to the new income source forest owners are motivated to invest in sustainable forest management und thus mobilise sleeping forest resources for bio-energy as well as for wood processing. Also our environment will benefit from the new market opportunities for small scale forest owners.
Experiences in Southern Europe for example show that the use of small dimension timber and woody biomass has a positive effect on diminishing the forest fire risk. Sustainable forest management increases the stability and vitality of our forest stands and enables to resist to natural disasters.
The Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF) is looking forward to the EESC opinion as well as to the EU biomass action plan which is currently under preparation in the Directorate General Energy and Transport that will give forestry a more prominent position in EU energy policy.
For further information, please contact:
Birte Schmetjen, CEPF communication and policy adviser, Rue du Luxembourg 47-51, 1050 Brussels, Tel. +32 (0) 2 219 02 31; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.   
CEPF – The voice of European Family Forestry
The Confederation of European Forest Owners brings 16 million forest owners from 23 countries (20 EU countries) around one table. It represents the interests of forest owners in Europe orientated towards the private sector vis-?-vis the European Union Institutions.