However, the proposal passed without amendment in the Environment Committee, underlines French centrist MEP Pascal Canfin. But the situation changed last week. The EPP now judges that a postponement is not enough and is calling for a review of the content of the law. “The current regulation is a bureaucratic monster. If implemented, it risks harming European farmers and businesses”says German Christine Schneider, who tabled the amendments.
Two fundamental changes
In essence, the amendments relate to two points. The regulation establishes a system with three levels of deforestation risks, ranging from “high” to “low”. The EPP wants to add a fourth category, which would establish zero risk, based on the “quantitative” state of the forests. With the consequence, denounces Pascal Canfin, that this will create differences between Member States of the Union which, currently, are all in the “low risk” category.
Furthermore, in the text, it is provided that documentation on the origin of the products follows the entire value chain. The EPP wants this obligation to fall only on exporters and that European traders be exempted from it. “It’s unacceptable, it destroys the whole approach” of the regulations, plague Pascal Canfin.
If the EPP amendments pass, and the final text is adopted, with the support of the far right, the Parliament will have to negotiate with the Council (the member states) which does not wish to go further than postponement. It will also be a new blow delivered by the EPP to the stability of the “von der Leyen majority” which, in addition to the conservatives, includes the socialists, liberals and Greens.
And if the amendments are rejected, as well as the final text, then the legislation will come into force at the end of 2024, as planned… Which is what the EPP wants to avoid.
