Forest law - European Union and international

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There is no “Common Forest Policy” on EU level; forest policy is the competence of the Member States.

Forest law of the European Union

However, various provisions of relevance to forest law can be found in different policy areas of the EU, for example the Common Agricultural Policy, environmental policy or energy policy.

These concern, among other things, the following topics:

>> Marketing of forest reproductive material;

>> Subsidisation of forestry;

>> Protection of forests through monitoring;

>> Plant protection as well as the

>> Fight against illegal logging and related trade.

Below you will find a few examples of legal instruments at EU level:

  • Resolution on a Forest Strategy for the EU (OJ 1999 C 56-1)
  • Directive 1999/105/EC on the marketing of forest reproductive material
  • Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)
  • Regulation (EC) No 2152/2003 concerning monitoring of forests and environmental interactions in the Community (Forest Focus) 
  • Directive 2000/29/EC on protective measures against the introduction into the Community of organisms harmful to plants or plant products and against their spread within the Community
  • Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005 on the establishment of a FLEGT licensing scheme for imports of timber into the European Community
  • Regulation (EC) No 1024/2008 laying down detailed rules for implementing Regulation (EC) No. 2173/2005 on the establishment of a FLEGT licensing scheme for imports of timber into the European Community
  • Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 laying down the obligations of operators who place timber and timber products on the market

International forest law

At the international level, the following non-binding legal instruments should be mentioned which, however, are reflected in EU legal instruments indirectly, as objectives:

  • Resolutions adopted on the occasion of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE)
  • Forest Principles produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).