New Member States carry a double burden of dealing with illegal logging issues through FLEGT outside the EU as well within their own borders. The FLEGT process was not set up deal with this issue, however the EU continues to ignore that there is a problem with illegal logging within its own borders and fails to support in particular its new Member States on this issue, although there does appear to have been some policy movement in this area.

All but one EU government surveyed in the barometer have expressed support for increased EU activities on illegal logging within its borders, a support which is even stronger than the three previous evaluations in 2004 & 2006.

In 2007 26 out of 27 countries surveyed support more activity in EU Member States and Accession Countries.

• 19 countries are in full support of more activity within the EU


• 7 countries agree in principle that there should be increased activity but have some reservations: Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Romania and Switzerland


• Only Poland did not see a need to become more active on illegal logging in new EU Member States and Accession Countries

What the EU needs to do:

Illegal logging is big business and where there is demand, with no controls or restrictions on trade, there will also be supply. Apart from problems in terms of corruption and over harvesting within countries themselves, there is also the issue of illegal timber and wood products being traded across national borders within the EU.

• The EU needs to provide better technical and financial assistance for the EU Member States to deal with illegal logging issues in their countries and to ensure good governance.

What the Member states need to do:

• In particular new Member states need to close any loopholes in legislation they may have which could permit illegal logging and trade within the EU and to increase their effectiveness of monitoring and control measures in addition to stopping illegal timber to be trafficked through their countries.

View the summary scores for the EU governments