EUSTAFOR underlines that the ultimate goal of forest-related policies in the EU should be to promote sustainable and multifunctional management of forests, respecting all three pillars: environmental, economic, and social. Whether and how certain aspects of sustainable forest management, such as carbon removals, could be improved and could deliver more than today, should be first subject to sylvicultural research and serious impact assessments leading into well-informed policy decisions. Only then, certification systems can be considered as facultative instruments of a voluntary status.