Brussels, 22/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - Greece and Hungary have each received a reasoned opinion for continued infringement of EU rules to counter the trade in illegally harvested timber. This move to the second stage of the infringement procedure came on Thursday 22 October, the two countries having already been sent letters of formal notice in May 2015.
The Commission called on Greece to transpose Regulation 990/2010, which came into force on 3 March 2013 and which bans the placing of illegal timber on the EU market, and the FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Government and Trade) regulation, 2173/2005, establishing a licensing scheme to verify the legality of imports of timber into the EU from countries that have partnership agreements under the scheme. Hungary, which has already taken steps to close the compliance gaps, is asked to establish the regulatory and institutional conditions for the system of checks to counter the trade in illegal timber and further legislation is required to determine the level of penalties for breaches of Regulation 990/2010. The two countries will have two months to take action, after which time, if they have failed to act, the Commission may refer the case to the Court of Justice of the EU. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)