Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on the making available on the Union market and the export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation

Ce que fait l'acte

to curb deforestation and forest degradation that is provoked by EU consumption and production. PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council. BACKGROUND: deforestation and forest degradation are taking place at an alarming rate. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that 420 million hectares of forest – about 10% of the world’s remaining forests and an area larger than the European Union – have been lost worldwide between 1990 and 2020. In addition, deforestation and forest degradation contribute to the global climate crisis in multiple ways. Most importantly, they increase greenhouse gas emissions through associated forest fires, permanently removing carbon sink capacities, decreasing climate change resilience of the affected area and substantially reducing its biodiversity. Deforestation alone accounts for 11 % of greenhouse gas emissions. The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted the report by Christophe HANSEN (EPP, LU) on the REPORT on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on 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. The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows: This proposal lays down rules regarding the placing and making available on the Union market, as well as the export from the Union market, of cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, soya and wood (relevant commodities) and products, as listed in Annex I, that contain, have been fed with or have been made using relevant commodities (relevant products), with a view to minimising the Union’s contribution to deforestation, forest degradation and forest conversion worldwide and contributing to a reduction in global deforestation. The report also stipulated that the proposed Regulation should also lay down obligations for financial institutions headquartered or operating in the Union that provide financial services to natural or legal persons whose economic activities consist, or are linked to, the production, supply, placing on or export from the Union market of the relevant commodities and products. As regards the scope , Members want to include pigmeat, sheep and goats, poultry, maize and rubber, as well as charcoal and printed paper products, and bring the cut-off date one year forward, to 31 December 2019. The report called on the Commission to evaluate, no later than two years after the entry into force, whether the rules need to be extended to other goods such as sugar cane, ethanol and mining products , and how feasible this is. Members also wanted them to cover other natural ecosystems such as grasslands, peatlands and wetlands, if deemed appropriate by the Commission, within one year after the entry…