The first high-level forum to engage and facilitate discussions on CCUS will take place on 11 October. The forum is designed to involve all relevant stakeholders, representatives of the EU institutions and EU countries to facilitate the deployment of CCUS technologies. If you wish to participate, please register here. For more information, please contact Michal Dlugosz.
The first high-level meeting of the relaunched Clean Energy Industrial Forum will take place on 13 October. Bioenergy Europe will be represented by Mr. Pasi Laine, CEO of Valmet. Topics of this meeting attended by Commissioner Simson will include: competitiveness of the clean energy industry in the EU, circularity and critical raw materials access, skills needed and opportunities of the just energy transition. For more information, please contact Michal Dlugosz.
The European Court of Auditors published a special report called “EU funding for biodiversity and climate change in EU forests: positive but limited results”. The report evaluates the impact EU policies were having in forests. Although forests cover roughly the same amount of land as agricultural land, they only receive about 1% of the Common Agricultural Policy funding, which is responsible for nearly all of EU forestry funding. The report shows concerns regarding the Timber Regulation not being enforced stringently enough and it suggests that the EU should increase monitoring and data collection on forestry. The Commission also replied to the report. For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.
The current Forest Strategy which was adopted by the Commission on 16 July was heavily criticized by the Council in the Council’s draft response. Bioenergy Europe’s Secretariat has now obtained a copy of the Commission’s draft response to this reaction. In the Council’s reaction they state, “all forest-related decisions and policies in the EU must respect the principle of subsidiarity and Member States’ competence in this field,” the Commission pushed back saying “Forests and forestry do not fall within the exclusive competency of Member States.” Forestry is likely to remain an area of conflict between the Council and the Commission. For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.
