On Wednesday, 2 February 2005, CEI-Bois, the European Confederation
of Woodworking Industries, officially presented a Memorandum to the EU
Institutions, developed on the occasion of the installation of the new European
Commission, at the European Parliament in Brussels. Mr Vittorio Prodi, Member of
the European Parliament, hosted the meeting, which gathered MEPs, Commission
officials, representatives from the EU Member States and regions, industry
representatives and trade press.
Mr Vittorio Prodi, MEP, welcomed the participants and introduced the main
guidelines of the document, stressing the importance of information exchange
between different industrial sectors and the European Parliament.
Mr Bo Borgström, CEI-Bois Chairman, stated that the aims of this memorandum
are: to stress the importance of the woodworking industries within the EU, to
point to the positive effects of using wood and wood products, and to list the
main concerns of the industry on topical issues and industry’s requests towards
the EU institutions for action. Furthermore, he informed on the Roadmap 2010
action, a first ever-strategic project aiming at increasing the use of wood
products in Europe in order to secure the future of the industry. The
transposition of this project is a clear sign for the strong commitment of the
sector to its operations and to its raw material base. By using wood,
woodworking companies strongly contribute to sustainable development.
Mr Pedro Ortún, Director of DG Enterprise’s directorate I of the EU
Commission, concluded the meeting by stressing the active cooperation between
the woodworking industry and different Commission services, particularly the
forest-based industries unit of DG Enterprise. He welcomed this initiative and
assured that the Commission will duly take CEI-Bois’ position into account for
subsequent actions.
The Memorandum has been widely distributed to the European institutions, in
first instance, and will also serve as a good basis for lobbying at national
level.
CEI-Bois also distributed the informative brochure “European Wood
Factsheets”, a project developed in cooperation with the European Wood Councils
in the context of the “Wood in sustainable development process” of the Roadmap
2010. The factsheets outline the advantages of wood as a material and the
possibilities to combat climate change by using more wood.
Finally, the participants received the second issue of “Building Europe”, the
European Wood Magazine, and a CD-Rom including the results from the first phase
of the Roadmap 2010 action.
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