Governing forests of the European Union: institutional framework for interest representation at the European Community level.

Abstract: This article analyses whether the European Community provides for articulating a common set of priorities for society and supports openness and participation in the area of forest policy at the Community level. In doing so, it reviews the institutional framework and, using the results of the internet-based stakeholder consultation, assess the presence of interested parties at the level of the European Community. In addition, from the same consultation it sets out the opinions of the interest groups concerning possible areas for enhancing coherence in forest governance in the European Union.
The results of the study demonstrate that there is a range of possibilities for participation of different interest groups and flow of information between the European Commission and the stakeholders. However, the number of interest groups prepared to actively participate in Community-level forest and forestry-related policy- and decision-making is relatively low.
The artiucle concludes that the present institutional arrangements should be sufficient for open and participatory priority setting in forest governance at the European Community level. However, based on the stakeholder consultation it also concludes that co-ordination and co-operation, and hence coherence, in forest and forestry-related policy- and decision-making at the Community level should be improved.

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