EU Presidency Statement - United Nations: 7th Session of UN Forum on Forests

Statement by Mr. Matthias Schwoerer, Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Con-sumer Protection of the Federal Republic of Germany, on behalf of the European Union, Seventh Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests, New York, 16-27 April 2007

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and As-sociation Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the EFTA country Iceland , member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Re-public of Moldova align themselves with this statement.

Let me start by thanking the members of the Bureau and the Secretariat for their valuable work in pre-paring this meeting. The documents submitted for our consideration today, including the most recent draft text for negotiations on the Multi-Year Programme of Work suggested by the Bureau, provide a solid basis for addressing the key issues at stake at this session.

The EU would also like to express its particular gratitude to the Government of Indonesia for organis-ing the country-led initiative in Bali last February. We are convinced that the result of the Bali meeting will provide valuable input for our deliberations on the MYPOW during this session.

The international community continues to be confronted with the urgent need to forcefully address and reverse the trend of deforestation and forest degradation worldwide. The latest scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, recent economic analyses, in particular the Stern Report and the FAO Report on the State of the World's Forests 2007 have highlighted this once more. For the EU, the outcome of UNFF7 will be decisive in determining whether the UNFF is capable of providing a strong impetus to effective implementation of sustainable forest management at all levels. Building on the consensus achieved at UNFF6 regarding the four global objectives on forests and the decision to adopt a non-legally binding instrument on all types of forests, the EU is ready to reach final agreement on the text of the Instrument and the Multi-Year Programme of Work, both of which are equally impor-tant and seen as a package.

Please permit me to briefly formulate our expectations for the negotiations over the coming two weeks. The EU is pleased that our starting point for negotiations on the instrument will be the text prepared by the Bureau and the Secretariat following the meeting of the expert group last December. In order to use the limited time efficiently, the EU considers it would be wise to direct our attention to substance rather than form. Nevertheless, we see considerable scope for shortening the text and mak-ing it more coherent, and we are particularly open to discussing suggestions to that end. We are con-vinced that a clear and concise text will give the Instrument both greater political appeal and the nec-essary authority for effective implementation on the ground.

As regards the MYPOW, the EU sees particularly in the outcome of the Bali meeting very positive recommendations that we can build upon. We support the view that the MYPOW should engage the world's forest community around the Global Objectives on Forests and a new international instrument on sustainable forest management. The EU considers furthermore that UNFF in the future should fo-cus more on a limited number of politically relevant and most pressing issues which could be clustered under broader themes.

As for the modalities of future sessions, the EU is in favour of reducing time allocated for negotiations and of dedicating most of its attention to assessing progress in implementation, including discussions on input by the regions, dialogue with the CPF, especially its initiative on science and technology, and last but not least improved dialogue with the Major Groups.

Let me conclude by saying that the EU is looking forward to constructively participating in the negotia-tions over the coming fortnight and has every confidence in a positive outcome of UNFF7 which could represent a milestone for the international forest regime.


* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabili-sation and Association Process.

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• EU Presidency Statement - United Nations ECOSOC: UN Forum on Forests (17/10/2007)
• EU Council Conclusions: 7th session of United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF7)  (19/3/2007)
• EU Presidency Statement - ECOSOC Substantive Session: UN Forum on Forests (24/7/2006)
• EU Presidency Statement - United Nations Forum on Forests  (13/2/2006)