The Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper), meeting in Brussels on Wednesday 21 December in the final days of the Czech Presidency of the EU Council, endorsed the provisional agreement reached on 6 December between the European Parliament and the EU Council on the regulation to halt the EU’s contribution to global deforestation.
Under the future regulation, only products that can be shown not to have contributed to forest degradation or deforestation anywhere in the world can be sold in the EU or exported from the EU, thanks to a mandatory due diligence requirement in supply chains.
The regulation will initially cover palm oil, beef, timber, coffee, cocoa, soybeans, rubber, including tyres, by-products such as chocolate, furniture, printed paper, charcoal and certain palm oil derivatives. The agreement was validated with four abstentions and one reservation. The European Parliament and the EU Council will also have to endorse it to allow for the formal adoption of the regulation that will repeal Regulation (EU) No 995/201. See the text of the agreement: https://aeur.eu/f/4r3 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)