To MEPs concerned about the increase in illegal logging in the EU, European Commission Vice-President Dubravka Šuica assured them, on Thursday 9 June, of the Commission’s determination to deliver on the commitments made under the ‘European Green Deal’ in cooperation with the Member States.
She was responding to an oral question from the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions on what the Commission is doing to address the implementation gaps in EU legislation identified in numerous citizens’ petitions.
A resolution to be voted on by the Parliament at the end of June calls for dissuasive sanctions to combat a practice that is damaging to biodiversity and the climate (see EUROPE 12955/12).
“The Commission has made a commitment to protect and restore forests. This is a key issue on the political agenda. We need bigger, more resilient and healthier forests” said the Vice-President, arguing that the EU forestry strategy for 2030 can go hand in hand with economic prosperity in the fight against climate change.
“We are strongly committed to protecting forests and environmentalists in the EU”, she added.
With regard to Member States’ commitments to restore illegally logged land through reforestation, the Commission will assess their implementation in 2023 and “consider how to provide guidance to Member States”.
Recalling that the Commission is developing an Observatory on Deforestation and Forest Degradation, Ms Šuica said that new remote monitoring technologies were a help in combating illegal logging, but could not be everything.
It is up to the Member States to ensure the proper implementation of the EU ‘Timber’ Regulation and “the Commission will play its role as guardian of the Treaties”, she said. Hence the infringement proceedings against Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Estonia.
Vlad Gheorghe (Renew Europe, Romania) said he did not understand why some colleagues refused to sanction illegal logging at European level. “Why don’t we have a unified regime? I call for the creation of a European Green Prosecutor, because illegal logging affects all EU countries”, he said.
Eleonora Evi (Greens/EFA, Italy) supports this idea. She also says that the EU should promote scientific methods to monitor deforestation, verify the legal origin of timber, and control forest exploitation.
Sceptical, Joachim Kuhs (ID, Germany) claims the resolution on illegal logging is “another attempt by the EU to increase its powers”. According to him, “the forestry strategy 2030 is not only a bureaucratic monster, it is above all a major encroachment on national competences, undermining the principle of subsidiarity”.
For Ryszard Czarnecki (ECR, Poland), illegal exploitation should not be used as an alibi to go beyond the existing EU framework.
The European Parliament’s draft resolution will be put to the vote at the plenary session on 22-23 June.
See the text: https://aeur.eu/f/222 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)