8. Congratulates the Commission on the exhaustive analysis of biotic and abiotic threats in its Green Paper, and draws attention to the need to examine, in addition, other factors directly linked to the impact of climate change on forests, such as defoliation, recalling that the defoliated treetop surface in southern European forests has doubled in the last 20 years, resulting, in terms of direct consequences, in reduced capacity and efficiency in the carbon-fixing processes and in the reduction of forests' tempering effect in periods of drought or heatwaves, due to trees' premature loss of leaves;

8. Congratulates the Commission on the exhaustive analysis of biotic and abiotic threats in its Green Paper, and draws attention to the need to examine, in addition, other factors directly linked to the impact of climate change on forests, such as defoliation, recalling that the defoliated treetop surface in southern European forests has doubled in the last 20 years, resulting, in terms of direct consequences, in reduced capacity and efficiency in the carbon-fixing processes and in the reduction of forests' tempering effect in periods of drought or heatwaves, due to trees' premature loss of leaves;

8. Congratulates the Commission on the exhaustive analysis of biotic and abiotic threats in its Green Paper, and draws attention to the need to examine, in addition, other factors directly linked to the impact of climate change on forests, such as defoliation, recalling that the defoliated treetop surface in southern European forests has doubled in the last 20 years, resulting, in terms of direct consequences, in reduced capacity and efficiency in the carbon-fixing processes and in the reduction of forests’ tempering effect in periods of drought or heatwaves, due to trees’ premature loss of leaves;

In its assessment of the implementation of the roadmaps of May 2009, the Commission considered that the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia had met all the benchmarks set out in its roadmap and, in its assessment of November 2009, that Montenegro and Serbia also meet all the benchmarks set out in their respective roadmaps.

This means that the extent should take into account not only the % of affected leaves, but also the ‘intensity’ of the damage on leaf level: physiologically it makes a difference for a tree if 30 % of its leaves show only some small holes or if 30 % of its leaves are totally devoured.

It is not necessary to cut the petioles of the leaves but in case of compound leaves it may be advisable to detach the small leaves from the axis if this has not been done in the forest.