Regulation (EU) 2024/3234

What it is

to extend by 12 months the date of application of certain provisions of the deforestation regulation. 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: Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 (deforestation regulation) 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 establishes rules to ensure that products derived from certain commodities (namely coffee, cocoa, palm oil, soya, cattle, rubber and wood), which are placed on the EU market or exported from the EU, have not caused deforestation or forest degradation during their production, have been produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production and are covered by a due diligence statement. The European Parliament adopted by 371 votes to 240, with 30 abstentions, amendments to the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 as regards provisions relating to the date of application. The matter was referred back for interinstitutional negotiations to the committee responsible. As a reminder, the proposal aims to postpone by 12 months the date of application of the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation which lay down obligations for operators, traders and competent authorities, in order to allow Member States, operators and professionals to be better prepared and able to fully comply with their obligations under this regulation. Through its amendments, Parliament believes that the benchmarking system should be based on a four-level system (instead of three) which would classify countries as having no, low, standard or high risk. The ‘no risk’ refers to countries or parts thereof that meet the following assessment criteria: - forest area development has remained stable or has increased compared to 1990; - the Paris Agreement and international conventions on human rights and on preventing deforestation have been signed by those countries and parts thereof; - regulations on preventing deforestation and forest conservation at national level are strictly implemented and enforced in full transparency and monitored. The amendments state that relevant commodities and relevant products from countries or parts thereof that present no risk should not be placed or made available on the market or exported unless all the following conditions are fulfilled: (a) they have been produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production; and (b) they fulfil certain documentation requirements . Operators that place or make available on the market or export relevant commodities and relevant products produced in countries or parts thereof that present no risk will fulfil the documentation requirements by making the following documents available to the competent authorities upon request: - trade name and type of the relevant products, the quantity of the relevant products, the…

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