The summer General Assembly of EOS, the European Organisation of the Sawmill Industry, took place in Helsinki last week, 12-13th June 2024, hosted by the EOS Finnish member, the Finnish Sawmills Association, Sahateollisuus. The Finnish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Sari Essayah, took part in the meeting and shared her thoughts about forest-related policy at the EU level during the next five-year term. She also emphasised the key role of sawn wood products in responding to global challenges, including climate change and sustainable economic growth.
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The Assembly noted the recent launch of the European woodworking and sawmill industries manifesto for the political term 2024-29. The manifesto identifies eight key actions that need to be taken by decision-makers to deliver a green, cost-efficient, competitive, and resilient EU economy.
In a lively discussion, EOS Members noted important topics such as the entry into application of the 'Deforestation Regulation', reiterating their concerns regarding the insurmountable difficulties and bureaucracy that SMEs will actually have to face. It was also stressed that the missing implementing act on the country benchmarking could lead to unfortunate and regrettable consequences: i.e., considering that all countries have been assigned a standard level of risk on June 29th, 2023, the efforts made by companies to comply with the obligations of the EUDR with regard to the countries that will be classified as 'low risk' will be essentially pointless in the end, resulting in a disproportionate and unnecessary burden for operators and traders.
The latest edition of the EOS Annual Report – 2023/2024 can be freely downloaded at: www.eos-oes.eu.
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EOS
www.eos-oes.eu