20.500.12556/RUL-175438 Conflicts and policy priorities drive differences in the EU Forest strategy implementation insights from 15 European countries Conflicts have arisen between Member States and the European Commission around the European Union Forest Strategy either because of differing opinions on whether forests should be considered as a commodity, as nature to be conserved, or because of disagreements about the EU's competencies vis-à-vis national sovereignty of forests. These conflicts highlight high and diverging stakes in the EU's governance of forest ecosystems. At the national level, impending changes related to EU regulations impact the forest-based sector and its governance, including monitoring and access to finance. Despite not being legally binding, the EU Forest Strategy is significantly influencing national policies within the broader EU political framework. To what extent this new strategy exacerbates existing conflicts or shapes new ones is not well understood. The main objective of this study is to understand whether and how conflicts and different policy prioritization may influence the implementation of this key EU Strategy at the national level. Theoretically, this study draws on Europeanization studies to understand how different forest-related conflicts are connected to attempts to integrate European forest policy at the EU level. Empirically, an analysis of policy documents and interviews with policy experts in 15 European countries was conducted. Our analysis provides a rich overview of the extent to which diverse national policy developments align with the EU Forest Strategy goals and how these developments connect to existing or newly emerging conflicts around the Strategy's implementation. Based on these insights, we suggest potential ways to overcome the challenges and advance forest policy in Europe. forest policy Europe EU forest strategy conflicts policy path dependencies Europeanization gozdarska politika Evropa gozdarska strategija EU konflikti odvisnosti političnih poti evropeizacija true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Članek v reviji 2025-10-27 14:22:19 2025-10-27 14:22:24 2025-12-10 03:58:57 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 14 str. art. 103652 Vol. 181 Dec. 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 630*93+630*97(4-6EU) 1872-7050 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103652 254934019 RAZ_Pecurul-Botines_Mireia_2025.pdf RAZ_Pecurul-Botines_Mireia_2025.pdf 1 FD6C2F3269F34C9E8EE7731C615E7839 a2526aaffaf5f7d211e0c52e1584b4bdf2520cd2df193638efa4d1f17a0fa720 09f92bac-b338-11f0-9328-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=220978 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S138993412500231X 1 ae43ea7c-b337-11f0-9328-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=220977 Biotehniška fakulteta 0 0 0