Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-07-06-Speech-3-444"
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"en.20050706.33.3-444"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am of course delighted at the interest that you are taking in the Community action plan on forest law enforcement, governance and trade, FLEGT. However, it is not enough to have an action plan: it must still be implemented. That is why the Commission adopted proposals for implementing this plan in July 2004. These proposals comprise a regulation establishing a voluntary licensing scheme for imports of timber and a recommendation for a directive on a mandate to negotiate partnership agreements with timber-producing countries. The Council is currently examining these proposals, and I hope that an agreement will be reached this year.
In the meantime, we have released EUR 17 million to finance pilot programmes relating to the fundamental aspects of the action plan, in particular to encourage independent monitoring of logging operations, to strengthen local civil society and to encourage the private sector to follow the broad political guidelines set out in the action plan. We have also released EUR 3 million to support the international and regional dialogue on improving forest governance and combating illegal logging. A technical assistance programme costing EUR 15 million is also expected to start in Indonesia in 2005.
We have also endeavoured to develop a common approach with the Member States of the European Union. As part of our joint work programme, bilateral agencies of European lenders are currently holding informal consultations on FLEGT partnership agreements in potential partner countries, including Ghana, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Gabon, Malaysia and Indonesia. That should make it easier to hold formal negotiations on partnership agreements once we have a mandate to negotiate on behalf of the Community. In the Commission we are also analysing the feasibility of having additional legislation to support the FLEGT action plan, in other words something rather more coercive and proactive.
The evaluation is in progress and is taking place in close collaboration with the Member States, since many of the potential measures are clearly matters of national competence. The options evaluated include public procurement policy, money laundering, stolen goods and anti-corruption legislation, in addition to the feasibility of practical aspects of the new legislation on monitoring imports of illegally logged timber. I hope that this work will reach a conclusion during the course of this year.
To conclude, I would like to say a few words about the calls for a unilateral ban on imports of timber of illegal origin. Personally, I perfectly understand the interests behind these calls. However, a unilateral ban on importing illegally logged timber into the European Union would not, it seems, provide our customs authorities with an instrument enabling them to confirm the legality of the timber. To achieve this, we need the full and complete cooperation of the exporting country, which is why the Commission has proposed a voluntary system based on partnerships with the producer countries. These partnerships will combine a whole raft of governance reforms in the producer countries with measures to stop timber of illegal origin from being imported into the European Union, in particular a licensing system for imports. This approach would enable us to deal with both the problem of supply in the producer countries and that of demand on our own markets."@en1
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