On Friday 17 April, organisations representing farmers and forest owners in the EU called for further simplifications to make the European regulation on combating deforestation applicable.
In a press release (https://aeur.eu/f/llf ), the Confederation of European Forest Owners (CEPF), Copa-Cogeca and theEuropean Landscape Organisation (ELO) point out that, despite the one-year postponement of the application of the regulation, major challenges remain (see EUROPE 13776/38).
The organisations are calling for micro and small operators to be exempted from the obligation to submit a simplified declaration; for enhanced cooperation with producers’ associations, producer groups and cooperatives in order to facilitate the transmission of declarations by the Member States; for a review of requirements that are difficult to apply (such as the declaration of estimated quantities, where this information does not significantly improve traceability); for clarification of the rules for updating declarations (to avoid notification obligations for minor changes, such as the quantity of biomass harvested or the place of production), and for the extension of the simplified scheme to all primary producers in countries classified as low risk, regardless of their size, using existing databases. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)