Debate: Deforestation
Date: WEDNESDAY, 21 OCTOBER 2020
Speaker: Virginijus Sinkevičius
Language: EN

Let me congratulate you, Ms Burkhardt, and the entire Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, on your important report, which calls for an EU legal framework to halt and reverse EU—driven global deforestation. It is good to see that we agree on the importance of this subject, and that we share a sense of urgency.  Our EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 stresses the importance of increasing the quantity, quality and resilience of our own forests. But while the area covered by forests in Europe increases, forest degradation and international deforestation threaten the well—being of all of us. Deforestation is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, causing climate change. It is pushing animals and plants to extinction and affecting the rights of indigenous peoples in some parts of the world. In short, it is akin to choking life on Earth.  Deforestation is also a complex problem, and there is no easy solution. No major economy in the world has yet managed to eliminate products linked to deforestation for its supply chains, and yet this is exactly what we have to do and what we plan to do. EU demand and consumption, our way of life, should not trigger deforestation and forest degradation. In fact, this should go for everyone. We have to break the link.  Your report and the legislative initiative resolution which this House will adopt tomorrow is an extremely important contribution in this regard. We particularly appreciate that through this report, the European Parliament has been truly effective in drawing attention to the issue of deforestation. Public awareness and support are crucial if we really want to change things. The report addresses highly relevant issues and contains a number of important messages. It is certainly true that the limited uptake of voluntary schemes failed – failed to deliver on the promise of reducing deforestation – and that mandatory action is needed. Getting the product scope right and ensuring that it is scientifically based and regularly updated will definitely be a key aspect of any future action. It is also true that we should not forget that high carbon stock and biodiversity rich ecosystems, other than forest, marine and coastal ecosystems, wetlands, peatlands or savannas are equally threatened.  Let me be clear, we are determined to act and to use the EU’s economic weight to help protect, restore and sustainably manage the world’s forests. As you probably know, we have already started preparatory work on a new legislative proposal to curtail the placing of products associated with deforestation or forest degradation on the European market. This objective is enshrined in the European Green Deal, the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and farm—to—fork strategy. We are currently working on an impact assessment and we have launched a public consultation that will run until 10 December. The adoption of this proposal is currently scheduled for next year, 2021, the second quarter.  In the current impact assessment process and in line with our better regulation principle, we are of course assessing a variety of policy options. These include due diligence and bilateral agreements with third countries, but not only. We are, for example, studying the system put in place by the EU regulation to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, as well as different forms of verification systems, among other options. In parallel, we are also conducting a fitness check of the rules in place to fight illegal logging, namely the EU timber regulation and the FLEGT regulation, to take action into account of our past experience and better understand what has worked and what has failed. We expect to finalise these fitness checks in early 2021, so that their results can duly inform the decision—making process. We have been implementing the due diligence system of the EU timber regulation for more than seven years and have been negotiating and implementing flexible, voluntary partnership agreements for much longer.  Let me be clear, we will certainly not shy away from proposing strong mandatory action to address the problem, but we need to make sure that whatever we propose works, that it has the necessary impact on the ground and that it is compatible with our WTO obligations.  Let me conclude by saying that the report of the European Parliament constitutes an important contribution and goes beyond the legislative work of the Commission, meaning it should also translate in the work of other sectors, including working in partnership with producing countries to reduce pressures on forest and help them implement sustainable forest—based value chains – ones adopted by this House. We will carefully analyse your recommendations and will duly consider these when developing our proposal. Honourable Members, between 1990 and 2020, about 10% of the world’s forest cover was destroyed – an area bigger than India. If deforestation were a nation, it would be the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the US. We cannot underestimate this challenge, and we have to act. This is also why our efforts to curtail the risk of deforestation and forest degradation feature prominently in the Commission’s work programme for the next year, which the College adopted only two days ago. It is our responsibility to do our part to change this course and it is in our hands to do it effectively, already in upcoming months. Let us not waste this unique opportunity. Let us do this together.