On April 12, 2024, a meeting of the timber clusters of Carinthia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Slovenia took place in Tarvisio, Italy, where the actors of the Alpe Adria timber value chain discussed the pressing issue of the EUDR, the Regulation on Deforestation-free products, which is the subject of current debate on the European and world level. The implementation of the regulation, which is not an easy challenge for European forestry and the wood industry, is indeed difficult to implement in this form without a significant reduction in the competitiveness of the European wood industry on a global scale.

The goal of the Alpe Adria region delegates – Cluster Legno Arredo Casa Fvg, Wood Industry Cluster Slovenia, Timber Innovation Network Alpe Adria (TINAA) accompanied by key stakeholders including Federlegno Arredo, Confindustria Udine, Legno Servizi, Confartigianato Videm, Land- und Forstbetriebe, Kärnter Forstverein in the presence of official and political representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of the Republic of Slovenia, Carinthia and the Autonomous Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as important entrepreneurs in the sector – was the exchange of best practices and the search for a common position towards the European Commission in terms of accelerating the revision of the EUDR, that this would be feasible in the near future and would not significantly reduce the competitiveness of the European wood and furniture industry.

After an institutional online welcome by Pietro Oieni, head of the competent authority for wood of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Independence and Forestry of the Republic of Italy, the EUDR was presented live from Brussels by Silvia Melegari, general secretary of CEI Bois, the umbrella European wood association, in the discussion the representatives of the clusters highlighted their point of view. Slovenia’s position regarding the regulation was commented on by Simona Vrevc from the Slovenian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food.

Acknowledging the noble goal of this regulation, the Legno Arredo Casa FVG cluster expressed strong concerns about its concrete implementation, as expressed by the stakeholder delegates Alessandro Calcaterra, Marco Vidoni, Mirco Cigliani, Paolo Fantoni and Carlo Piemonte. “We are ready to cooperate with the region, the competent ministries and the European Union in order to ensure the protection of the environment and the production capacity of the sector, but we submit a proposal to postpone the entry into force of the regulation, especially when sanctioning the work, which should provide for a transitional phase of at least 3 years. This will give us time to start a consultation with the EC to analyze and revise the most impactful parts of the regulation on bureaucratic burdens for companies.”

Concern was also expressed on the side of the Wood Industry Cluster of Slovenia due to the significant bureaucratic burdens that the EUDR imposes on companies, which would put a heavy burden especially on SMEs, said Bojan Resman and Matej Mulej from LIP Bohinj and Bernard Likar from the Forestry Cluster. “In order to harmonize the EUDR directive with the interests of industry and forest owners, we also propose a postponement of the implementation of the regulation, at least until the EU information system is operational.”

The Timber Innovation Network Alpe-Adria from the Austrian Carinthia (TINAA) emphasized the importance of a European policy that supports forest owners and forestry companies in the active and sustainable management of forest resources, that they are involved in the decision-making process through a structured dialogue. In order to avoid short-term burdens, a revision of the regulation on deforestation is necessary, which would eliminate legal uncertainties, was the unanimous opinion of Stefanie Ofner, present on behalf of the Carinthian Land Parliament, Martin Gruber, the former governor of Austrian Carinthia, Christian Benger (Land &Forstbetriebe), Johannes Thun-Valsassina (Kärtner Forstverein), Matthias Granitzer (Waldverband Kärnten) and TINAA cluster leader Sebastian Adami.

Finally, the three clusters reiterated their commitment to strengthening dialogue and cooperation to address the challenges posed by the EUDR, ensuring that the interests of their regions and the timber sector are adequately represented and protected, respecting the balance between environmental protection, economic growth and social prosperity.