MEPs debate on a new law obliging companies to ensure products sold in the EU do not come from deforested land anywhere in the world.The new regulation, already agreed with EU member states, helps fight climate change and biodiversity loss by preventing deforestation related to EU consumption of products from cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm-oil, soya, wood, rubber, charcoal and printed paper. Before such products can be placed on the EU market, companies must verify and issue a so-called “due diligence” statement that the products have not led to deforestation and forest degradation anywhere in the world. Extracts from the debate and statement by Christophe HANSEL (EPP, LU), Rapporteur.

statement

debate

plenary session

fight against climate change (T)

HANSEN, Christophe (EPP, LU)

European Green Deal (T)

forest protection (T)

Fit for 55 (T)

Deforestation regulation: statement by Christophe HANSEN (EPP, LU), Rapporteur, extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, The outcome of the trialogues on December 6 is a law we can all be proud of. It is a pioneering regulation and I am convinced it will make a decisive contribution to tackling global deforestation and forest degradation. That also makes it an important tool to help us reach the objectives of the coming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement on climate as well. The new rules will demonstrate that the EU is ready to take the lead in the global struggle against climate change and biodiversity loss. This sends a powerful signal to other major economies, underlining the urgent need for strong legislative action against afforestation and showing how it can be achieved.

SOUNDBITE (English), Stella KYRIAKIDES, The agreed text of the regulation reflects the core features of the Commission proposal, such as tackling deforestation regardless of whether it is legal or illegal in the country of production. The due diligence statement to be submitted by operators, strict traceability requirements and the benchmarking system. The agreed text also includes many of the improvements requested by this House. I am thinking particularly of the inclusion of rubber and palm oil derivatives in the scope.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN (EPP, LU), Rapporteur, We lost a huge amount of forests over the last 30 years. And we can see that 10 million hectares of forests are lost every single year. And so the more we wait, the more we will lose and we are in the end as well guilty about what is happening in certain other zones in the world because we are consuming coffee, cocoa, meat, soya and as well palm oil for example. And those products are produced often on surfaces that have been deforested to make a place for that agricultural land. And they land in our shelves in the supermarkets. And that is, of course, something we want to avoid.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN (EPP, LU), Rapporteur, We don't want to be complicit to what is happening on the other side of the world. And that's why we say we need to stop importing those products that are coming from deforested areas and therefore the Parliament has as well made in 2020 an own initiative report which has been taken up the idea by the European Commission. And they have proposed a strong proposal already which we as a Parliament have managed to make even stronger.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN (EPP, LU), Rapporteur, The Commission forgot certain products, to include them. For example, we have had palm oil as a product in the scope of the regulation, but for example, palm oil derivatives were not included. And often we even import, for example, in the way of cosmetics. In cosmetics they use palm oil and to produce them and we are importing them. So those are customs codes. And this goes for several other products. We added them to the appropriate annexes so that they are under the scope as well. We included also a rubber because rubber had been in fact assessed by the European Commission and so we managed to get that in.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN (EPP, LU), Rapporteur, We invited the Commission to come up in two years with a review where it has to be assessed if at that point we can as well include maize but as well other products. We have, for example ethanol made of sugar cane. This is not in, but this is a potentially as well very damaging for forests all over the world as well. 

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN (EPP, LU), Rapporteur, Already nowadays, there are countries that really produce in a very sustainable way all of those commodities that we are importing. So what might happen is that we have a certain re-shifting of the origin countries that you are taking, for example, not anymore the coffee from country A, but you can take it from country B because they are really doing well already. That is one consequence. There might be as well for some commodities a rise in the in the prices. That is possible as well.

EP Vice-President Pina PICIERNO (S&amp;D, IT) opening the vote on the report HANSEN and the vote is adopted. 552 votes in favour, 44 against, 43 abstentions.