The Council of the EU, the European Commission and the European Parliament failed to reach agreement on postponing the regulation on imported deforestation at an initial trilogue meeting on Thursday 21 November.
The EU Council and the Commission opposed any change to the text of the regulation on imported deforestation other than its postponement for one year.
Christine Schneider (EPP, German), rapporteur for Parliament, defended amendments adopted by Parliament thanks to votes from the far right on Thursday 14 November (see EUROPE 13524/1), but without the support of The Left, the Greens/EFA, S&D and Renew Europe.
“The EPP was extremely isolated in its efforts to weaken the regulation against deforestation, which was ironically underlined by the EU Council”, explained Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA, French), shadow rapporteur during the trilogue.
The EU Council stressed the need to ensure compatibility with the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) by introducing a category of ‘zero-risk’ countries. The idea of postponing the discussion on the creation of this category until 2028 was also not accepted by the Commission and the EU Council.
Faced with Christine Schneider’s insistence, the Commission and the EU Council proposed the publication of a non-binding political declaration in which they would commit to a simplified implementation of the regulation, without giving further details.
The shadow rapporteur for Renew Europe, French MEP Pascal Canfin, has declared his support for the idea, while specifying that this declaration would indicate that “the advantages and disadvantages of a category of ‘no-risk’ countries and its compatibility or incompatibility with WTO rules” would be analysed.
The declaration “would have been a good compromise”, said German MEP Delara Burkhardt, shadow rapporteur for the S&D, but “the Conservatives prefer to continue blocking the decision for their political manoeuvring, leaving the industry, the competent authorities and the producer countries in limbo”. The Greens/EFA are also in favour of this solution, but point out that the political content of a declaration is important and that it should not send out a signal of deregulation for the rest of the mandate.
The next trilogue will be held on 3 December. In the meantime, Parliament’s rapporteurs will be meeting in Strasbourg on Tuesday 26 November. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)