REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the exercise of the delegation conferred on the Commission pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2010 laying down the obligations of operators who place timber and timber products on the market (the EU Timber Regulation)
Date: 2019-02-18
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission
Subjects: European forestry policy, delegated legislation, illicit trade, market approval, market supervision, powers of the institutions (EU), traceability, transfer of competence, wood product, wood production

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 18.2.2019 COM(2019) 86 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the exercise of the delegation conferred on the Commission pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2010 laying down the obligations of operators who place timber and timber products on the market (the EU Timber Regulation)  
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 
AND THE COUNCIL 
on the exercise of the delegation conferred on the Commission pursuant to 
Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 
20 October 2010 laying down the obligations of operators who place timber and 
timber products on the market (the EU Timber Regulation) 

1.  INTRODUCTION 

Regulation  (EU)  No  995/20101  (hereinafter  the  EU  Timber  Regulation  or  the 
Regulation)  prohibits  the  placing  on  the  market  of  illegally  harvested  timber  or 
products derived from such timber. The EU Timber Regulation is part of a broad set of 
measures  introduced  by  the  FLEGT  Action  Plan2,  which  is  the  EU’s  comprehensive 
response  to  the  pervasive  problem  of  illegal  logging  and  its  devastating  impact  on 
forests.  It  also  contributes  to  reducing  emissions  from  deforestation  and  forest 
degradation as well as to the conservation role of forests, sustainable management of 
forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries.  

The EU Timber Regulation established three obligations: 

1.  It prohibits the placing on the market of illegally harvested timber (i.e. timber 
harvested  in  contravention  of  the  applicable  legislation  in  the  country  of 
harvest) or timber products derived from such timber; 

2.  It requires operators placing timber and timber products on the EU market for 
the first  time to exercise ‘due diligence’, i.e. to undertake a risk management 
exercise  to  ensure  that  only  legally  harvested  timber  (timber  harvested  in 
accordance with  the applicable legislation in  the county of harvest) or timber 
products derived from such timber are placed on the EU market; 

3.  It  requires  traders  of  timber  and  timber  products  already  placed  on  the  EU 
market  to  keep  records  of  their  suppliers  and  customers  (‘obligation  of 
traceability’). 

The EU Timber Regulation covers a wide range of timber products listed in its Annex 
using  the  EU  Combined  nomenclature  codes.  It  also  provides  for  "monitoring 
organisations"  to  be  recognised  by  the  Commission  with  a  role  to  provide  operators 
with operational due diligence systems and to assist them in meeting their obligations.  

The  EU  Timber  Regulation  was  adopted  in  December  2010  and  entered  into 
application on 3 March 2013. During this period, the Commission adopted two non-

1  Regulation  (EU)  No  995/2010  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  20  October  2010  laying  down  the 
obligations  of  operators  who  place  timber  and  timber  products  on  the  market  Text  with  EEA  relevance  (OJ  L  295, 
12.11.2010, p. 23). 
2 Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament - Forest Law Enforcement, Governance 
and Trade (FLEGT) - Proposal for an EU Action Plan, COM/2003/0251 final. 

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legislative  acts.  The  first  one  is  Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  No 
607/20123  of  6  July  2012  on  the  detailed  rules  concerning  the  due  diligence  system 
and  the  frequency  and  nature  of  the  checks  on  monitoring  organisations,  which  was 
adopted as pursuant to Article 18(2) of the EU Timber Regulation and Articles 5 and 7 
of  Decision  1999/468/EC 
the  exercise  of 
implementing powers  conferred on the Commission.  The second one is  Commission 
Delegated Regulation (EU) No 363/20124 of 23 February 2012 on the procedural rules 
for  the  recognition  and  withdrawal  of  recognition  of  monitoring  organisations  as 
provided  for  in  Regulation  (EU)  No  995/2010,  which  was  adopted  as  pursuant  to 
Article 8(7) of the EU Timber Regulation.  

the  procedures  for 

laying  down 

2.  LEGAL BASIS 

According to Article 6(3) of the EU Timber Regulation “the Commission may adopt 
delegated  acts  [...]  as  regards  further  relevant  risk  assessment  criteria  that  may  be 
necessary to supplement those referred to” in the EU Timber Regulation. Article 8(7) 
of  the  EU  Timber  Regulation  provides  the  possibility  to  adopt  delegated  acts  to 
supplement  the  procedural  rules  with  regard  to  the  recognition  and  withdrawal  of 
recognition of monitoring organisations, if experience so requires. Pursuant to Article 
14  of  the  EU  Timber  Regulation,  the  Commission  “may  adopt  delegated  acts  [...] 
amending  and  supplementing  the  list  of  timber  and  timber  products  set  out  in  the 
Annex” to the EU Timber Regulation.  

Article  15(1)  of  the  EU  Timber  Regulation  stipulates  that  “the  power  to  adopt  the 
delegated  acts  referred  to  in  Articles  6(3),  8(7)  and  14  shall  be  conferred  on  the 
Commission for a period of seven years from 2 December 2010”.  It also provides that 
“The delegation of powers shall be automatically extended for periods of an identical 
duration”, i.e. seven years, “unless the European Parliament or the Council revokes it 
in accordance with Article 16” of the EU Timber Regulation. Thus the delegation of 
powers  was  last  automatically  prolonged  from  2  December  2017  until  1  December 
2024. 

Article  15(1)  of  the  EU  Timber  Regulation  moreover  requires  the  Commission  to 
“make a report in respect of the delegated powers not later than three months before 
the  end  of  a  three-year  period  after  the  date  of  application”  of  the  EU  Timber 
Regulation,  which  was  on  3  March  2013.  The  Commission  did  so  on  18  February 
20165.     

Article 15(1) only refers to the first reporting deadline three months before the end of 
the  three-year  period  following  the  date  of  application  (i.e.  December  2015),  and  a 
three-year  reporting  rhythm  is  not  synchronised  with  the  seven-year  prolongation 
period. Nonetheless, it can be inferred from the reporting practice regarding delegated 

3 Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 607/2012, OJ L 177, 7.7.2012, p. 16–18. 
4 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 363/2012, OJ L 115, 27.4.2012, p. 12–16. 
5 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52016DC0060  

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powers6, as well as from the choice of the indefinite article “a” in relation to the three-
year  period,  that  the  Commission  is  expected  to  report  about  the  use  of  delegated 
powers every three years thereafter.  

Hence, with this understanding the Commission submits the present second report in 
respect of the delegation of powers. 

3.  EXERCISE OF THE DELEGATION 

During the second period after the date of application of the EU Timber Regulation, 
up to the date of the adoption of the present report, the Commission did not exercise 
its  delegated  powers.  The  Commission  started  in  2017  an  impact  assessment  study. 
This was a follow-up to the first review of the EU Timber Regulation7, one of findings 
of  which  was  that  the  current  product  scope  of  the  EU  Timber  Regulation  is  not 
optimal, due to incomplete product coverage. The objective of the study has been the 
analysis of the adequacy of the current product scope of the EU Timber Regulation, in 
light  of  the  objective  pursued  by  the  Regulation  –  namely  the  fight  against  illegal 
logging  and  associated  trade  –  and  to  assess  any  significant  economic,  environment 
and  social  impacts  of  options  to  revise  its  product  scope.  This  study  also  included  a 
public  consultation,  which  took  place  from  29  January  to  24  April  20188.  The 
Commission will in due course follow-up on the impact assessment study.  

6  The  provisions  following  the  agreed  standard  clauses  point  17  of  the  Common  Understanding  annexed  to  the  Inter-
institutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission 
on Better Law-Making of 13 April 2016 (OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p. 1) provide that the Commission shall draw up a report in 
respect of the delegated power not later than nine months before the end of “each” period. 
7  Report  from  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  Regulation  EU/995/2010  of  the  European 
Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  20  October  2010  laying  down  the  obligations  of  operators  who  place  timber  and  timber 
products on the market, COM/2016/74 final. 
8 The results of the public consultation are available at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/public-consultation-product-
scope-eu-timber-regulation_en 

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