Transcript Slide 1

The EU FLEGT initiative
Berlin
11 June 2013
DG Environment
European Commission
Background
F Concerns about EU serving as a market for
illegally harvested timber, including “conflict
timber”
F 2001 Forest Law Enforcement and Governance
(FLEG)
F 2003 EU adopted FLEGT Action Plan (+T for
Trade)
F 2005 FLEGT Regulation
F 2010 EU Timber Regulation
FLEGT Action Plan
F Legality as a foundation for sustainability
F Main elements
ä
ä
ä
ä
Development cooperation
Public procurement policies
Private sector actions
FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreements
(VPAs)
ä Additional legislative options
1. FLEGT VPAs
Legally binding bilateral agreements on
trade in forest products
Participatory negotiation process
Based on partner economies laws
Independent system audit function
Controls at EU Customs
Need time for negotiation and then
implementation
FLEGT licenses (not yet)
System development
Formal negotiations
Entering negotiations
Preparation, in-country consensus building
Introduction to VPAs
FLEGT VPA partners
Jan 2013
Laos
Honduras
Viet Nam
Malaysia
Guyana
Liberia
Ghana
Congo
Camero
on
Gabon
C.A.R..
D.R.C.
Indonesia
Other Dialogues
EU-Russia FLEGC
EU-China FLEG BCM
+ informal contacts the US; Australia;
Japan
2. EU Timber Regulation
Bilateral VPAs good, but demands for
overarching legislation to prevent the EU serving
as a market for illegally harvested timber
2008 US Lacey Act amended to prohibit the sale
of illegally harvested timber
EU legislative proposal put forward in 2008
Amended proposal adopted as Regulation (EU)
995/2010, entered into force on 2nd December 2010
applicable since 3 March 2013
Legal Framework
EU TR
Commission
Regulation on DDS
(No 607/2012 )
Commission
Regulation on MO
(No 363/2012 )
Guidance
document
OBLIGATIONS
Due diligence
Operators shall exercise due diligence when placing timber or timber
products on the market. To that end, they shall use a framework of
procedures and measures, hereinafter referred to as a ‘due diligence
system’, as set out in Article 6 of the EUTR
Prohibition
The placing on the market of illegally harvested timber or
timber products derived from such timber shall be prohibited
Traceability
Traders shall be able to identify from who they bought the
timber products and where applicable to who they have
supplied the timber products
WHO IS LIABLE?
 “Operators” = any
natural or legal person who places
timber or timber products on the EU market. Liable for:
 Exercising of due diligence
 Prohibition
 “Traders” = any natural or legal person who trades on
the internal market timber or timber products already
placed on the market. Liable for the “traceability”
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Illegally
harvested
Harvested in
contravention of
the applicable
legislation in the
country of harvest
Applicable
legislation in the
country of harvest
- Legal rights to harvest
- Taxes and fees linked to
harvesting
- Compliance with timber
harvesting laws, including
directly related
environmental and forest
legislation
- Respect for third parties
tenure/use rights
- Trade and customs laws
in so far as the forest
sector in concerned
risk
evaluation
risk
mitigation
information
placing
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Key components of a DDS
1) Access to information: species, origin, quantities, traders
and compliance with legal requirements of harvest country
2) Risk assessment: certification; prevalence of illegal harvesting;
sanctions; complex supply chains, etc.
3) Risk mitigation: Ex: additional information or documentation;
certification, etc.
Negligible risk - where
following full risk
assessment no cause for
concern can be
discerned
•
Products covered by FLEGT or
CITES licenses are considered to
have been legally harvested for
the purposed of the EU Timber
Regulation
•
This means by importing FLEGT
or CITES licensed timber, due
diligence is exercised.
Monitoring organisations (MO)
 Legally established within the EU and recognised
by the Commission/the EFTA Surveillance Authority
 Maintain and evaluate a due diligence system and
grant operators the right to use it
 Ensure that operators correctly apply the due
diligence system
 Will be subject to checks by competent authorities
 MO assist operators and is an option for operators
 Commission in a process of recognising first
successful applicants
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PRODUCT SCOPE
Listed in Annex using EU Customs
codes
Covers a wide range of timber products
Does not cover:
– Waste and recycled products
– Packaging material to support or
carry another product
– Certain bamboo and rattan products
– Other products not listed in Annex
(toys; musical instruments)
May be amended to include other
products (Chapter 49)
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EUTR Enforcement:
the EU Member States
Competent authorities (CA) = national government
bodies responsible for the application and
enforcement: Check operators; Check MOs; Reports, etc.
A list of EU MS` CA can be found here:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/timber_regulation.htm
Penalties: effective, proportionate and dissuasive
penalties
Commission monitors uniform implementation:
regular meetings with CA
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Role of 3rd party
verified schemes (certification)?
Recognition of the voluntary certification in the
Preamble - Recital (19)
Role in the risk assessment - Art. 6 (b)
“[...] Risk assessment procedures shall take into account [...] relevant risk assessment criteria
including: Assurance of compliance with applicable legislation, which may include certification or
third-party-verified schemes which cover compliance with applicable legislation [...]”
Role in the risk mitigation - Art. 6(c)
“[...] risk mitigation procedures [...] may include requiring additional information or documents
and/or third party verification”.
Role of 3rd party
verified schemes?
Criteria for assessing their credibility in the
implementing Regulation
Art. 4 Risk assessment and risk mitigation
(a)
they have established and made available for third party use a publicly available system of requirements, which
system shall at the least include all relevant requirements of the applicable legislation;
(b)
they specify that appropriate checks, including field-visits, are made by a third party at regular intervals no longer
than 12 months to verify that the applicable legislation is complied with;
(c)
they include means, verified by a third party, to trace timber harvested in accordance with applicable legislation,
and timber products derived from such timber, at any point in the supply chain before such timber or timber products are
placed on the market;
(d)
they include controls, verified by a third party, to ensure that timber or timber products of unknown origin, or timber
or timber products which have not been harvested in accordance with applicable legislation, do not enter the supply chain.
Further explanations in the Guidance document
(section 6)
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NOT ONLY TIMBER…
 DG ENV commissioned a study:
The impact of EU consumption of imported food
and non-food commodities (e.g. meat, soy
beans, palm oil, metal ores) that are likely to
contribute to deforestation.
 This could lead to considering policy options to
reduce this impact
 Mining and minerals are included!
–19
Statistics:
Most of EU27 imports of fossil fuels and mining
ores are being sourced in either countries which
have a very low forest cover or don’t report
deforestation;
Most coal is imported from South Africa, Australia
and the Russian Federation; most oil comes from
Norway, the Russian Federation and North Africa;
mining ores are mainly sourced from South Africa,
Botswana and Brazil.
–20
For imports of minerals (mining of metal
ores, uranium, gems, and other mining
and quarrying), Brazil is the largest
contributor with 26%, and Indonesia with
20%. Brazil is an important source of iron
and aluminium ores and concentrates for
the EU27. Indonesia for copper ores and
concentrates, and gold ores and
concentrates of other precious metals.
–21
–22
Thank you!
European Commission DG ENV.E.2
"Global Sustainability, Trade &
Multilateral Agreements"
E-mail: [email protected];
Website:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/timber_regulation.htm
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