The European Parliament adopted today in the Plenary their report on deforestation, sending a strong message of disregard to the concerns raised by the affected sectors. The voted text indeed presents amendments that will bring more complexity and disruption in the supply chain. Copa and Cogeca supports fighting this worldwide damaging phenomenon and understand the need for urgent action. This fight against deforestation, however, should be done in a way that does not put at risk the competitiveness of the EU agri-food and forest sectors and does not disrupt the supply of commodities nor impact food prices and food security.
Copa and Cogeca have called against the inclusion of maize on the list of products concerned in the framework of this regulation. In a time when we are confronted with an acute crisis on the agri-food markets at EU and world level, with cereal and livestock producers under a lot of pressure, the European Parliament is deciding to add even more financial and administrative burden on them. The Commission in its impact assessment clearly outlined that if maize would be included in the scope of the regulation, “it would require a very large effort and significant financial and administrative burden, with limited return in terms of curbing deforestation driven by EU consumption.”
On the other hand we regret the absence of cane sugar in the European Parliament proposed list of products. Cane sugar is among the ten most traded agricultural commodities worldwide and is a tropical crop, for which land demand is competing with tropical forests and ecosystems in some countries.
Particularly concerning is the adopted amendment on traceability and more specifically the aspect of traceability to plot which is currently not feasible to implement, precisely for smallholders. This aspect will have an important impact on the supply chains by hindering the availability of commodities.
The European Parliament included many proposals in the report without a proper impact assessment on their implementation on the ground. Such examples are the definitions, mainly the definition on forest degradation that should be workable and consistent with FAO’s recommendations and thus adapted to the diversity of forests throughout the world. Tackling deforestation outside of the EU’s borders will only work if we can bring other countries on board, hence definitions and understanding of diversity of global forests and local situations are of paramount importance.
Copa and Cogeca hope that the continuation of work on these files in trialogues will address the above outlined concerns. We stand ready to engage with all institutions in order to make the deforestation proposal truly fit for the objectives fixed by the Commission, that will guarantee that any additional rules imposed ensure a level playing field for EU farmers, forest owners and their cooperatives and take into account the complexity of global supply-chains.
Artigo publicado originalmente em Copa Cogeca.
