Forests | Minister Kurvinen responds to Henna Virkkunen’s criticism: Finland and Sweden have been preparing for logging for a long time

Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Antti Kurvinen (Centre) responded on Sunday to the MEP of the coalition Henna Virkkunen to the criticism directed at the Finnish government’s actions in the EU’s forest policy. Virkkunen stated Helsingin Sanomat In the Saturday guest interview. that the government has not taken the EU proposal on forest restoration seriously enough.

“The government has not been able to adequately defend the economic use of forests and the fact that forest issues must be resolved nationally. For example, in Sweden, it is questioned whether the EU even has the right to make this type of presentation”, Virkkunen stated in the interview.

Kurvinen vehemently denies Virkkunen’s view of the actions of the Finnish government.

“Finland and Sweden have been preparing for these twists for a long time by assembling a front of like-minded countries to act in order to combat and change harmful proposals,” Kurvinen stated in the center’s press release.

“In recent months, Minister Kurvinen has met on several occasions with ministerial colleagues, members of the Commission and members of the European Parliament from like-minded countries on forest matters,” the release also stated.

EU’s goal is to curb the deterioration of biodiversity and species loss.

“The commission has tried to make criteria at the European level for how to restore different habitat types, and they don’t work everywhere. For example, in Finland, the show is financially very dramatic for economic forests,” said Virkkunen.

According to Virkkunen, especially the environmental views between the center and the greens have caused the government’s actions to be “soft”. Virkkunen says that the commission has been able to take advantage of this softness.

The center according to Kurvinen, in September, he met 12 MEPs who “are the main influencers in the European Parliament’s agriculture and environment committees on forest matters”.

Kurvinen says that the influence will continue to be extensive in the coming months.

Kurvinen strongly criticized the coalition.

“I hope that in future struggles for Finland’s interests, the members of the coalition will also straighten their ranks and finally start acting consistently for Finnish sustainable forestry, or at least stop supporting proposals that are harmful to Finns.”