Debate: Prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market
Date: MONDAY, 22 APRIL 2024
Speaker: Valdis Dombrovskis
Language: EN

The fight against forced labour is a political priority for this Commission. As forced labour continues to exist, and even grow, the European Union needs an effective tool to avoid that products made with forced labour are placed on the EU market. For example, the latest ILO report issued last month estimates the total illegal annual profits for forced labour at USD 236 billion. This is USD 64 billion more as compared to the previous estimate from a decade ago. Therefore, this measure is urgently needed to provide strong incentives for companies and governments to ensure respect for human rights and better labour protection, in line with international commitments taken by a large majority of countries, as well as to make sure that the economic operators produce products without using forced labour. We cannot allow companies to profit from forced labour by selling their products in the single market. The Commission welcomes the trial agreement, reached in early March by the European Parliament and the Council on the draft regulation, so I’d like to congratulate Parliament and especially the co-rapporteurs, Maria‑Manuel Leitão‑Marques and Samira Rafaela, for their remarkable work on this file. We expect that the agreed text will lead to a balanced and effective instrument based on elements included in a provisional agreement, such as close cooperation between Member States and the Commission, as well as implementation of a risk-based approach and the approach of state-imposed forced labour. The main change brought to the agreed text, compared with the initial Commission proposal, concerns the governance mechanism, which will result in the Commission taking a large majority of cases. This instrument will be only as strong and effective as the team implementing it so, going forward, we count on Parliament and the Council to assure that the Commission will have enough resources to be able to deliver for the Union and meet the objective of helping to eradicate forced labour and ban products made with forced labour from the Union market. The Commission has prepared a formal statement on financing of resources for the implementation of the regulation. The statement was sent to Parliament’s services for inclusion in the verbatim record of this debate. So let me thank Parliament again for your hard work throughout the negotiations on this file, and encourage you to endorse this instrument as provisionally agreed with the Council. “The European Commission notes that the final agreement reached by the co-legislators on the Regulation on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market has evolved significantly in terms of the staff and resources required for its implementation by the Commission, compared to the legislative financial statement which accompanied the original proposal ( The Commission recalls that, for the current MFF, the Commission is operating under the principle of stable staffing imposed by the budgetary authority, and – given the wide array of additional tasks that have been conferred upon the Union since the beginning of the MFF - it is already under severe constraints, making it difficult to cover even the existing tasks’ needs. There is no margin to finance additional officials or external staff. Therefore, any additional tasks conferred by the co-legislators upon the Commission shall be accompanied by corresponding resource reinforcements ensuring their effective implementation. In light of the above, the additional Commission human resources required by the final agreement endorsed by the co-legislators will not allow the Commission to respect the principle of stable staffing. This will require additional establishment plan posts and corresponding appropriations, to be authorised by the European Parliament and the Council during the annual budget procedure along with the related budgetary appropriations. Furthermore, the Commission will also propose, in the framework of the annual budgetary procedure, the creation of additional budget lines under the Single Market Programme, the Customs Programme or both, financed from the Programme’s available appropriations, in so far as allowed under the respective legal bases, as identified in the updated Legislative Financial Statement provided by the Commission, which will also be used to finance the Commission’s implementation of the Regulation beyond the limit of the principle of stable staffing. These new budget lines will cover the cost of contractual agents and other administrative expenditures of the Commission in implementing the Regulation, to be authorised by the European Parliament and the Council during the annual budget procedure.”