The European Economical and Social Committee adopted last week Wednesday their opinion in response to the EU Commission's communication on the EU Forestry Strategy.
CEPF welcomes the opinion prepared by Mr. Seppo Kallio and hopes that the recommendations that it gives can be well recognised in the development of a new EU Forestry Action On 26 October the EESC (European Economic and Social Committee) adopted an opinion (Rapporteur: Mr Seppo Kallio - Group III, Various interests, Finland) in response to the European Commission’s recent Communication on an EU Forestry Strategy.

The Committee endorses the general thrust of the Communication but calls for an Action Plan for sustainable forest management. Moreover, insists the Committee, the future strategy needs to be better implemented and coordination among member states has to be improved. In the debate, Mr Kallio underlined the need for a more competitive forestry sector, but one in line with the European Union’s Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs.
The Committee’s opinion recommends that the action plan should:
include a definition of priorities and objectives, and provide sufficient  resources for implementation;
provide for the forestry perspective to be taken into account when  implementing other Community policies;
support the development of innovative and market-based operational  models for producing forest environmental services;
give priority to creating the optimum environment to ensure the  competitiveness and economic viability of the forestry sector;
promote the use of wood and other forest products as renewable and  environment-friendly materials;
support the promotion of research and development on forests;
identify practical ways of improving coordination and communication with  respect to EU decision-making on forests.
The EESC believes that the Forestry Strategy and its implementation should continue to be based on the subsidiarity principle, and on the concept of economically, ecologically, socially and culturally sustainable forestry.
The Committee emphasises that in implementing the Forestry Strategy attention should be paid to aligning its objectives with the EU’s Lisbon Strategy and with the EU’s Sustainable Development Strategy approved by the Gothenburg European Council (June 2001) which requires dealing with economic, social and environmental policies in a mutually reinforcing way.