Of the eighteen EU Member States that took the floor during the “other business” item on the postponement of the “anti-imported deforestation” regulation, which had been tabled by Austria (see EUROPE 13744/3), only Spain expressed its support for the European Commission on Wednesday 5 November at a meeting of EU environment ministers.
The others all supported Austria in its request for a one-year suspension of the regulation, which is currently scheduled to come into force at the end of 2025. The European Commission’s proposal is deemed insufficient (see EUROPE 13735/4).
Several Member States felt that the time available to adopt this proposal was too short, that the regulation should be simplified further and that an impact study was necessary. Calls for the creation of a category of countries with “zero risk” of imported deforestation have resurfaced, with Slovakia stating that this would be “entirely compatible with the rules of the World Trade Organization” (WTO).
In response, the European Commissioner for the Environment, Jessika Roswall, said that a one-year ‘stop-the-clock’ procedure “would only postpone decisions and [they] would find themselves in exactly the same situation in a year’s time”, while operators want greater clarity on both content and timetable.
The Commissioner warned that exceptions already existed for most operators from low-risk countries, and that creating a fourth category would take time and risk “dividing operators and countries” when they did not know “how many countries could be in this ‘zero risk’ deforestation category, even within the EU”.
A counter-proposal could come from the Council of the EU.
The regulation will come into force at the end of the year if the co-legislators fail to reach agreement by then. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)