ÖVP has agreed and now wants to delay
Strasbourg (OTS) – The ÖVP has been running a fact-free fear campaign against the EU deforestation regulation for months. Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig is now again calling for a postponement, although the ÖVP has agreed.
Thomas Waitz, head of the EU delegation and chairman of the European Green Party, criticizes the agriculture minister’s demand: “Every day, tens of football fields are cut down in the Amazon, the Pantanal and the Cerrado. We need the EU deforestation regulation more than ever. Our Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig is pushing the alleged interests of forest farmers, but in reality he is defending the profit interests of the sawmill industry and large companies. A rapid implementation of the regulation would strengthen the domestic timber industry and would even mean a market advantage for Austria, as wood from clear-cutting would finally be visible from abroad.”
Questions & Contact:
Green Club in Parliament
Inge Chen
Press spokesperson Thomas Waitz
+32484912134
inge.chen@europarl.europa.eu