EN Official Journal of the European Union C 161/53

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council repealing Council Directive 68/89/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning the classification of wood in the rough

COM(2006) 557 final — 2006/0178 (COD)

(2007/C 161/16)

On 11 October 2006, the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee, under Article 95 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 19 February 2007. The rapporteur was Mr Dorda.

At its 434th plenary session, held on 14 and 15 March 2007 (meeting of 14 March), the European Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 159 votes with 3 abstentions.

1. Introduction

1.1 The Commission proposal seeks to repeal Council Directive 68/89/EEC of 23 January 1968 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning the classification of wood in the rough.

1.2 Given the fact that Member States, the forestry sector and forest-based industries have been saying for a number of years that the Directive is not generally applied across-the-board in the timber trade, the Commission has proposed that the Directive be repealed.

2. General considerations

2.1 In mid-2005, 19 Member States and 11 representatives of national industry federations took part in consultations aimed at establishing whether or not the Directive had been applied and whether its repeal would have an adverse impact. The results of the survey confirmed that the majority of both Member States and industry federations do not observe the Directive in the timber trade; they believed that the Directive itself was not detailed enough, did not take into account the intended uses of wood and was not geared to market needs.

2.2 Application of the Council Directive has been limited, since it is not binding, the systems of classification and measurement it establishes are out of date, and operators in the timber market have agreed upon and applied other methods of measurement and classification. Despite this, the internal market for wood raw material has expanded, as well as trade with third countries, seemingly without hindrances. Furthermore, European standards for the measurement and classification of wood have been established; they can be applied, as appropriate, in wood market transactions and are considered a better solution.

2.3 The repeal of the Directive is therefore in line with the results of the consultations with Member States, the forestry sector and forest-based industries. The aims of the Directive can be achieved without Community legislation.

2.4 For the reasons given above, and also given the fact that the repeal of the Directive will not have any budgetary implications and will help to simplify European legislation, the Committee supports the Commission proposal. The Committee believes that legislation that is rarely applied and is not essential for the proper functioning of the internal market in this sector should not remain in force.