On Thursday 28 June in Luxembourg, the Environment Ministers of the EU27 agreed on the EU Council’s position on the proposed November 2021 regulation to minimise the risk of global deforestation and forest degradation associated with products placed on the EU market.
This is a major issue, as the EU - the second largest contributor to global deforestation after China - is responsible for 17% of tropical deforestation linked to internationally traded commodities such as meat, palm oil, soy, coffee and cocoa.
This “pioneering text will provide the means to act against a global phenomenon and will make it possible to reduce the EU’s environmental footprint”, highlighted the French Minister for the Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, before the ministers confirmed the agreement we detailed (see EUROPE 12978/21) that the Member States’ ambassadors had approved on 22 June.
“This is a major step forward which also illustrates our ambition for the climate and for biodiversity”, she said at the end of the session she chaired.
All the ministers and the Commission thanked the outgoing French Presidency for having succeeded in six months of intense negotiations to reach a compromise that combines ambition and pragmatism to allow a rapid implementation of the regulation, compatible with WTO rules and without excessive bureaucratic burden for the sector operators and the administrations responsible for controls.
Several delegations that supported the compromise nevertheless stressed that they would have liked to see a broader scope that covered valuable ecosystems other than strictly forests, as requested by the European Parliament since October 2020, and hoped that the bar could be raised. Slovakia had its concerns recorded in the minutes of the session.
The mandatory due diligence rules will apply to all operators and traders who place on or export from the EU market the six commodities - palm oil, beef, timber, coffee, cocoa and soybeans - proposed by the Commission, to start with. These rules also apply to by-products such as leather, chocolate and furniture.
The EU Council is clarifying and simplifying the due diligence system to avoid duplication of obligations and is reducing the administrative burden for operators and Member State authorities. It also introduces the possibility for small operators to use larger operators to prepare due diligence statements.
The Council confirms the establishment of a benchmarking system that assigns third countries and the EU a level of risk linked to deforestation (low, standard or high). The risk category will determine the extent of the specific inspection and control obligations of operators and Member State authorities. This implies enhanced monitoring for high-risk countries and simplified due diligence for low-risk countries.
The Council has clarified the obligations regarding checks and established quantified targets for minimum check levels for standard and high-risk countries.
The provisions on effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties and enhanced cooperation with partner countries proposed by the Commission are maintained.
Clearer definition. The EU Council clarifies what is meant by ‘forest degradation’. In the absence of an international FAO definition, this concept should be understood as ‘structural changes to forest cover, taking the form of the conversion of primary forests into plantation forests or into other wooded land’.
In addition, the general approach strengthens the human rights dimension by adding several references to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to the text.
This political agreement in the Council paves the way for negotiations with the European Parliament, once the latter has adopted its position. This should happen in the autumn, possibly in September, based on the report by Christophe Hansen (EPP, Luxembourg) (see EUROPE 12937/10).
On behalf of the incoming EU Council Presidency, Anna Hubáčková, the Czech Environment Minister, welcomed an “ambitious and pragmatic” text and said she was “ready to defend the interests of the Member States in the negotiations with the Parliament”.
EU Commissioner for Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius hailed it as “a great step forward” ahead of COP27 on climate and COP15 on biodiversity.
See the EU Council’s general approach: https://aeur.eu/f/29e (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)