The meeting was co-chaired by Ms. María Tourné, Head of the Liaison Unit Madrid, and Mr. Boris Greguska, delegate of the Slovak Republic, and opened by Ms. Begoña Nieto, General Director of Rural Development and Forest Policy of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment of Spain, the host country for this ELM.

During these two days, the progress of FOREST EUROPE's on-going activities was reported to the delegates.  They were updated on the implementation of the FOREST EUROPE Program of Work, which includes different initiatives linked with the promotion of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM).  More specifically, they heard about topics such as the further development of SFM tools, the improvement of forest monitoring and reporting, the valuation of forest ecosystem services, the promotion of SFM in a green economy, and the raising of awareness and understanding of all contributions of forests and SFM to sustainable development.

Delegates were also told about the coming FOREST EUROPE meetings.  According to the schedule presented in Valladolid, the next FOREST EUROPE meeting will be the expert group meeting on valuation of forest ecosystem services, which will take place in Madrid, Spain, on 27 February 2014.  This will be followed, on 29-30 April, by the workshop on green economy and social aspects of SFM, which will be held in Santander, Spain.

During the ELM formal and informal discussions took place on a road map to be followed for the organization of the FOREST EUROPE Extraordinary Ministerial Conference that must receive, according to the Oslo Mandate, the results of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Legally Binding Agreement on Forests in Europe.  No agreement was reached on this for the time being.

On the first day of the meeting the Council of European Foresters (CEF), the International Association for Mediterranean Forests (AIFM), Pro Natura - Friends of the Earth Switzerland, Friends of the Earth Europe, and the Mediterranean Forest Model Network were accepted as new observers to the FOREST EUROPE process and were welcomed.  Taking into account these new affiliates, the number of FOREST EUROPE observer organizations now stands at 45.