Hungary has also signed the letter in which eleven European Union member states, on Austria's initiative, call on Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans to immediately review the draft of the Union's forestry strategy, the Ministry of Agriculture announced.
Minister of Agriculture István Nagy highlighted: forest management serves as a model of sustainable management throughout Europe, taking into account the social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainability. It is an incorrect and unacceptable approach if the Brussels bureaucrats unilaterally seek to enforce only green aspects from this unit, because there will be no social and economic basis for the implementation of the otherwise necessary environmental and climate protection measures.
It is not possible to protect European forests by impeding farmers.
The minister said: according to the leaked document, against the previous principles related to forests, the EU's previous forestry strategies and the resolutions adopted at the European forest ministerial conferences
Brussels would narrow down the tasks of sustainable and multi-purpose forest management exclusively to the preservation of biodiversity. The strategy proposed by Frans Timmermans would thus ignore the economic and social functions of forests, jeopardizing jobs linked to the forestry sector and the sector's role in the circular bioeconomy.
István Nagy reminded that Hungary joined the protest initiative launched by Austria in order to protect the interests of the 500,000 forest owners and approximately 37,000 forest managers living in the country, as well as to preserve the economic and social foundations necessary for sustainable management and nature conservation.
In addition to our country and Austria, the document was signed by the member states of the V4, as well as by the ministers responsible for forests of Estonia, Finland, France, Latvia, Germany and Romania.
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