European Parliament
A6-0015/2006
Riitta Myller (PSE ).
(FI)
Mr President, I wish to thank my colleague, Mr Kindermann, particularly for successfully probing into the issue of what European policy on forestry is and what it should be doing.
I would especially like to focus attention on the multi-use aspect of forests and the use of wood in new, innovative ways. Wood as a raw material has many properties which remain unexploited. For example, wood can be used instead of plastic, thus saving non-renewable raw materials. The chemical industry could exploit wood as a raw material, and the properties it has, in totally new ways. There is a lot of potential in the foodstuffs industry; for example, in the production of healthy foods.
All this, however, requires new research and knowledge. I therefore suggest that we should consider establishing a top-level research unit in Europe for the forest and wood sector to address this issue.

