Active environmental protection: Last December, the European Council decided to strengthen efforts to protect and sustainably manage international forests with an agenda. The background to this is climate change, but also the realisation that far too much land is still being converted to other uses through clearing. The European Council is very concerned about this global development. In consultation with supplier countries, ways and means should be developed to promote sustainable forest management and its legal use. The Council makes a number of proposals on this subject area which the European Commission should implement with the Member States – it is about supply chains, data collection, monitoring and an intensive dialogue with the partner countries.

The ETTF supports these Council proposals because they aim at sustainable use and can strengthen the duty of care for imports. “In principle, we support dialogue and active assistance in supplier countries to ensure sustainable timber use,” says ETTF General Secretary Thomas Goebel. The rules of due diligence are still not yet known by all European market participants, and implementation and monitoring at administrative level are not at the same level. This creates market distortion and does not serve the very purpose of a European regulation, namely to set the same standards throughout the internal market.

ETTF will play an active role in the implementation of Council decisions by the Commission during its talks in Brussels.