Design matters: The micro-dimensions of EU forest-related policies

Policy design is central to developing effective public interventions by matching policy goals with suitable instruments. Within the European Union (EU), policies are often formulated in highly abstract terms. As a result, critical operational details—such as implementation steps, levels of financial resources, and stakeholders' responsibilities—are often left undefined. While this flexibility helps adaptation and consensus-building across diverse Member States (MS), it can also hinder successful policy adoption, implementation, and monitoring. This article applies the micro-dimensions of policy design to examine how EU forest-related policies are translated into concrete targets and instruments. The analysis focuses on key forest-related policy domains: forests, bioeconomy, biodiversity and climate, each of which influences forest management and the provision of ecosystem services. Empirically, we assess 18 forest-related targets situated at the intersection of these domains by examining core forest-related policies in the EU: the Forest Strategy for 2030, the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the updated Bioeconomy Strategy, and the Stepping up Europe's 2030 Climate Ambition. Our findings reveal that limited attention to micro-dimensions of policy design, particularly regarding vague target formulation as well as instrument calibration in terms of financial resource allocation within shared funding programmes, and the definition of stakeholder roles in implementation, might influence the effective adoption and implementation of targets. These findings highlight the need to improve the specificity and clarity of EU policy design to enhance and facilitate the adoption, implementation, and monitoring of proposed forest-related targets.