The 2013 Blueprint accompanying the new EU Forest Strategy and the associated Staff Working Document underlines that the industry has to address a number of challenges to remain competitive:
The Forest Strategy and the Blueprint identify various activities to address challenges identified by the Commission, EU countries, and the industries themselves for the timeframe 2014-2020. Ongoing activities include:
The list of activities for the work programme 2014-16 will be developed based on the Blueprint.
This new Expert Group (56 kB) brings together EU-level representatives of the Forest-based Industries, civil society, and national authorities. The Expert Group succeeds the Former Advisory Committee on Forest-based Industries that last met in 2012. The group is chaired by the Commission and has the following tasks:
The Expert Group had its first meeting on 21 November 2014. Summary (542 kB)
The group had its second meeting on 20 April 2016. Summary and meeting documents
The Communication on Innovative and Sustainable Forest-based Industries in the EU was adopted on 27 February 2008. It addresses the challenges these industries face in the form of a 19-point action plan.
The challenges faced by the forest-based industries include innovation, increased global competition, access to third-country markets, climate change and high energy and transport costs. Moreover, the access and availability of both virgin and recovered raw material at competitive prices and the strategic role of these industries in limiting the impacts of climate change are issues that need to be addressed specifically. The SME dimension is especially relevant, in particular in the woodworking and printing sectors.
The Commission is proposing major policy guidelines which lay the foundations for a coherent approach towards strengthening the competitive position of forest-based industries in Europe, while incorporating climate change objectives into the industrial strategy.
The proposals have been subject to a public consultation and reviewed by the Advisory Committee on Community Policy regarding Forestry and Forest-based industries.
Collaboration with stakeholders and EU countries on the implementation of the actions will be channelled mainly through the Advisory Committee on Community Policy regarding Forestry and Forest-based Industries.