{"id":94500,"date":"2021-09-03T07:07:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T05:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=94500"},"modified":"2021-09-02T08:16:15","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T06:16:15","slug":"meps-blast-commissions-flagship-forest-strategy-as-vague-overstepping-eu-remit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/meps-blast-commissions-flagship-forest-strategy-as-vague-overstepping-eu-remit\/","title":{"rendered":"MEPs blast Commission\u2019s flagship forest strategy as vague, overstepping EU remit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

The strategy, which was presented by EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski during the European Parliament\u2019s agriculture committee meeting on 1 September, is one of the main initiatives of the Commission\u2019s Green Deal.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Commissioner, the aim of the strategy is to secure \u201cgrowing healthy, resilient forests for decades to come\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new forestry strategy puts forward set of coordinated, consistent and science-based policy actions that can be implemented in full cooperation with member states and forest stakeholders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as protecting primary and old growth forests throughout the bloc, the strategy aims to see 3 billion new trees planted across the EU by 2030, an initiative that Commissioner Wojciechowski pointed out has been widely well-received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ensure an \u201cadequate injection of EU funds\u201d to the forestry sector, the Commission is calling upon member states to set up new payment schemes under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foresters also stand in line to benefit from the Commission\u2019s new carbon farming initiative, the first legal proposal of which is expected by the end of the year, which is set to be a new source of income for foresters, the Commissioner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criticism across the board<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, MEPs remained unconvinced by the strategy, which had already received considerable criticism<\/a> from a number of member states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One notable voice of discontent was that of Finnish MEP Petri Sarvamaa, who stressed that what the sector needed was clarity and a clear vision forward, but that this strategy offered neither.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarvamaa suggested that the content of the strategy betrays the \u201cpower struggle\u201d inside the Commission, which led to the creation of an \u201cambiguous and unclear strategy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Greens aren\u2019t happy with it, the Socialists aren\u2019t happy, we are not happy \u2013 who is happy about this?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calling the strategy \u201ccontent-free and vague,\u201d Green MEP Martin Haeusling stressed the need to adapt to a new changing climate, warning that the bloc will see many more forest fires in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe burden of this will fall on Greece, Italy and increasingly other countries \u2013 but the strategy provides no answers for this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other MEPs expressed concerns that the strategy does not strike a balance between economic and environmental considerations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt gives the impression that forests are only to be considered as carbon sinks,\u201d Renew Europe\u2019s Ulrike M\u00fcller complained, stressing that she cannot accept the forestry economy to be \u201cpushed into the background\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right wing MEP Mazaly Aguilar concurred, saying the strategy must do \u201ca lot more to implement the multi-functional role of forests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing the Commissioner, Aguilar said that Parliament \u201ccontinues to request more ambition to take into account national realities and not only look at forests as carbon sinks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stepping on member states\u2019 toes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, others pointed to concerns over the Commission overstepping their mark given that forestry is a national competence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, Leftist MEP Luke \u2018Ming\u2019 Flanagan said that the EU should \u201cconcentrate on what we can do instead of dreaming over things we can\u2019t,\u201d suggesting that, instead of trying to influence areas outside its remit, the Commission should review the Mercosur trade agreement to offer more protection to the Amazon rainforest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, the Commissioner maintained that the EU wide forestry strategy can be implemented without stepping on the toes of member states, likening the situation to that of health, also a policy area which is the preserve of member states, but which saw considerable EU action during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he stressed that forestry will remain firmly in the remit of member states and that this will not change, Wojciechowski sees the Commission\u2019s role as in \u201cencouraging joint action but to an extent that does not take away member state competences and does not interfere with them\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTime will tell\u201d as to how far this intervention will go, he added, pointing out the overlap between the CAP strategic plans and the forestry strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cForestry is quite a part of [CAP strategic plans] recommendations, and encouraged and included in eco schemes,\u201d he said, offering up the example of agroforestry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Commissioner said accepted the criticisms levelled at him, he said he remained \u201cdeeply convinced\u201d that that strategy adopts an approach that is \u201cas balanced as it gets\u201d, covering the many functions that forests can play in the EU\u2019s economy and within EU policies on climate protection and biodiversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think this strategy will prove its worth in the future actions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Euractiv<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The strategy, which was presented by EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski during the European Parliament\u2019s agriculture committee meeting on 1 September, is one of the main initiatives of the Commission\u2019s Green Deal. According to the Commissioner, the aim of the strategy is to secure \u201cgrowing healthy, resilient forests for decades to come\u201d. \u201cThe new forestry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"European lawmakers from across the political spectrum have united in criticism against the European Commission\u2019s new flagship Forest Strategy, describing it as vague and superficial while flagging concerns that it goes beyond the remit of EU competences","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[13638,6268,16496],"supplier":[2317],"class_list":["post-94500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-forest","tag-forestry","tag-greendeal","supplier-european-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94500"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=94500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}