Environmental protection
EU Parliament votes to postpone forest protection law
Stricter rules to protect forests should soon apply to products such as cocoa and wood. However, there was a lot of criticism and the plan should be changed – that poses a risk.
A majority of the European Parliament has voted to postpone a new law to protect the rainforest. The MPs are also calling for further changes to the project, which had actually already been decided. The parliament accepted amendments from the center-right alliance EPP – which also includes the CDU and CSU – according to which, for example, a category of so-called non-risk countries should be introduced, the parliament announced. According to the information, significantly less strict rules would apply to products from these countries. Environmentalists see this as a major loophole that enables environmentally harmful deforestation.
According to the law, products such as coffee, wood, soy, cocoa and palm oil will only be allowed to be sold in the EU in the future if no forests have been cleared after 2020. This is also intended to significantly reduce deforestation of the rainforest, for example in the South American Amazon region.
Specifically, companies should in future submit a due diligence declaration that no forest was cleared or damaged for their product after December 31, 2020. Anyone who does not comply with the regulations must expect high penalties of at least four percent of their annual turnover in the EU. If the requested postponement of the regulation comes, it would come into force on December 30, 2025 for large companies and on June 30, 2026 for micro and small companies, the authority in Brussels announced.
EU states also for postponement
The EU states that were also involved in the legislation had also spoken out in favor of postponing the project by a year. However, they did not want to make any further changes, which is why the law, which had already been passed, now has to be negotiated again. This could have consequences: If there is no agreement in time, the law could apply from 2025, as originally planned. This would pose major problems for companies that had expected a postponement. At the beginning of October, the EU Commission proposed postponing the law already passed by Parliament and EU states after there was pressure from business.
Technical difficulties overshadow voting
The vote was marred by technical difficulties. Several lawmakers complained during the session that their voting machines were not working properly. Parliament Speaker Roberta Metsola decided not to repeat the vote. When asked whether Parliament could rule out with certainty that individual proposed amendments had received a majority solely because of technical difficulties, Parliament explained: The relevant Parliament departments are doing their utmost to determine the cause of the technical problem and the roll-call vote to be coordinated with the presence of the MPs.
dpa
Source: Stern
