[New post] Towards deforestation-free commodities and products in the EU [EU Legislation in Progress]
Members' Research Service posted: " Written by Vivienne Halleux (1st edition). On 17 November 2021, the European Commission tabled a legislative proposal aimed at curbing deforestation and forest degradation driven by the expansion of agricultural land used to produce specific comm"
On 17 November 2021, the European Commission tabled a legislative proposal aimed at curbing deforestation and forest degradation driven by the expansion of agricultural land used to produce specific commodities, namely cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soya and wood. Following up on a 2020 European Parliament resolution, which called for regulatory action to tackle EU-driven global deforestation, the proposal would impose due diligence obligations on operators placing these commodities and some derived products on the EU market, or exporting them from the EU. Member States would be responsible for enforcement, and for setting penalties in case of non-compliance. To facilitate due diligence and control, a benchmarking system would identify countries as presenting a low, standard or high risk of producing non-compliant commodities or products. Obligations for operators and national authorities would vary according to the level of risk assigned to the country of production.
While generally supporting the proposal, stakeholders have raised some issues, regarding for instance the commodities covered, the protection of human rights, the impacts of the country benchmarking on trade relationships, and the role of third-party certification.
In the Parliament, the file has been assigned to the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. In the Council, work on the file is ongoing at working party level.
Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the making available on the Union market as well as export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation and repealing Regulation (EU) No 995/2010
Committee responsible:
Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI)
COM(2021) 706 17.11.2021
Rapporteur:
Christophe Hansen (EPP, Luxembourg)
2021/0366(COD)
Shadow rapporteurs:
Delara Burkhardt (S&D, Germany) Chrysoula Zacharopoulou (Renew, France) Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA, France) Anna Zalewska (ECR, Poland) Kateřina Konečná (The Left, Czechia)
Ordinary legislative procedure (COD) (Parliament and Council on equal footing – formerly 'co-decision')
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