Policy area: Industry policy
When members of the European parliament gathered for the plenary session in September, the agenda was packed with negotiations about climate and energy proposals. The forest played a major role in many of these. One of the votes concerned the Commission’s legislative proposal for a regulation on deforestation, which the parliament adopted. The network of politicians; Europaforum Northern Sweden, which North Sweden European Office is part of, supports the EU:s ambition to reduce the global deforestation but an increased administrative burden connected to trade with wood and wooden products is a cause for concern.
On the 14th of September the European Parliament voted to adopt revisions to the Renewable Energy Directive, which in broad strokes determines if biomass from the forest can be classified as sustainable or not. The adopted revisions entail a restriction on the share of primary raw wood material that can be classified as renewable energy. Politicians from northern Sweden have, with the support of North Sweden, drafted a letter addressed to the members of the European Parliament where they asked for legislation that would also work in the arctic regions, which to a large extent is heated and provided with electricity from this type of biomass.
On the of 28 September the political network Europaforum Northern Sweden, which North Sweden European Office is part of, signed a position paper put together by ERIAFF, a European network consisting of regional parties in agriculture, food and forest. The position pertains to the European Commission’s latest legislative proposal about land use, Nature restoration law.
The political network Europaforum Northern Sweden has adopted a position paper on the EU’s new Arctic policy launched on October the 13th 2021. Europaforum Northern Sweden welcomes the policy but underlines that the Arctic needs to be embraced by the EU in a greater holistic manner than the new policy manages to deliver.
On October 21, the network Northern Sparsely Populated Areas (NSPA) organized a digital steering group meeting. On the agenda were updates on the EU’s new Arctic Policy, the NSPA’s arctic investment platform (AIP), the importance of the forest to the European Green Deal, and the NSPA’s work forward.
17 Mar 2021 EU Industry Week 2021: Northern Sweden's minerals and batteries crucial to the EU's green deal
29 Jan 2021 Potential for world-leading mining industry in northern Sweden according to new OECD study
21 Oct 2020 EWRC webinar Circular economy in the Arctic industries
29 Sep 2020 North Sweden welcomes the European Raw Materials Alliance
15 Sep 2020 Northern Sweden puts forward the importance of a regional dimension on EU's forest strategy
15 Jan 2020 Northern Sweden’s minerals important for EU’s climate adaptation
18 Dec 2019 North Sweden gathered in force with big regional stakeholder meeting in Brussels
18 Jun 2019 European premier of the OECD’s international meeting on mining in Skellefteå
20 May 2019 European Investment bank accepts loan for the biggest battery factory in Europe in Skellefteå, northern Sweden
05 Dec 2017 Swedish Forest Management and the Bioeconomy
07 Mar 2016 Position on Cascading
07 Mar 2016 European Commission visit to northern Sweden
04 Jan 2016 SSAB - A highly specialized steel company
02 Dec 2015 Boliden - one of the world's largest mining and smelting companies
26 Nov 2015 North Sweden premiere a series of articles on Raw Materials in Northern Sweden
26 Apr 2015 NSPA seminar with the OECD in Piteå
23 Mar 2015 NSPA has formally initiated the work with the OECD study
09 Feb 2015 The Future of navigation in the North 2015
11 Dec 2014 Luleå University of Technology in billion EU-investment
12 Nov 2014 The Silver Road Corridor - strengthening regional cooperation
23 Oct 2014 Sustainable mining in Northern Sweden
06 Jul 2014 The Impact of Culture - Creative businesses for sustainable cities
