COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL

The European Union's participation in the 7th FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference (Madrid, 20 -21 October 2015)

The 7th FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference will be held in Madrid on 20 - 21 October 2015. More than 40 European States, among them all Member States of the European Union, together with the European Union (represented by the European Commission) will attend the Conference, which is organised jointly by Spain and Slovakia.

The forest policy discussion under the Ministerial Conferences, renamed Forest Europe in 2009, is an inter-governmental, country-led process launched in 1990 with the objective of promoting the sustainable management of Europe’s forests. It operates by voluntary commitments of its current 47 signatories. The European Union has been a party in the process since its beginning, and, so far, has signed all its resolutions and declarations.

Since 1990, six FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conferences (previously known as Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe) have taken place.

The first Ministerial Conference, held in December 1990 in Strasbourg, was devoted essentially to forest monitoring and protection, and forest research issues.

The second, held in June 1993 in Helsinki, mainly addressed the sustainable management of forests, conservation of biological diversity in forests, the forest-climate relationship and forests in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

At the third, held in June 1998 in Lisbon, the main focus was on the socio-economic aspects of Europe’s forestry sector, criteria and indicators for the sustainable management of forests and the conservation of biological and landscape diversity of forests.

The fourth, held in April 2003 in Vienna, was principally concerned with integrating sustainable forest management into the broader context of sustainable development.

The fifth, held in Warsaw in November 2007, addressed two main themes; the relationship of forests, wood and energy, and forests and water.

And finally the most recent Ministerial Conference was convened in June 2011 in Oslo, Norway. Here, Ministers adopted European 2020 Targets for the protection and sustainable management of forests, and took a decision to launch negotiations on a Legally Binding Agreement on Forests in Europe.

For these six Conferences the Commission participated on behalf of the European Union and signed the final acts alongside the Member States.

As was the case for the past conferences, the 7th FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference is a step towards the implementation in Europe’s forests of the various commitments taken at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development which took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as the commitments taken at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, and at the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF, 2000 to the present).

The 7th FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference in Madrid will address the following topics: