Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-23-Speech-2-416"
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"en.20080923.40.2-416"2
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"Mr President, I would like to congratulate the rapporteur on the conclusions of her report, which I fully endorse. After more than 20 years of tropical timber agreements, their impact on the sustainable management of tropical forests seems limited. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that between 2000 and 2005 alone, tropical deforestation rates increased by 8.5% when compared to the 1990 levels.
It is a pity that parliamentarians and civil society are not more involved in the design of such agreements, in order to balance trade interests and push for a more sustainable management of tropical forests. But, however effective it may be, an agreement has to be part of a more general approach, where every region acknowledges its responsibility and takes firm action to stop forest devastation.
In Europe we might think that we have effective mechanisms to protect biodiversity and the consumer, but reality proves us wrong. Large volumes of illegal timber and timber products arrive in EU ports every day. Once the illegal timber has penetrated the market of one Member State it can easily be sold in any of the other 26 Member States without any further control of its legality. In this way, European consumers buying, in good faith, furniture or construction materials from supposedly legal sources, instead become unwitting accomplices to forest crimes.
As a main importer and consumer of wood and having committed itself to halving deforestation as part of its plans to fight climate change, the EU has a responsibility in combating illegal logging and trade in illegally harvested timber products. If we really want to get serious about tackling deforestation and illegal logging, we should first sharpen up our act back home by enforcing European legislation that prevents the marketing of illegal timber and timber products in the EU. Regrettably, a legislative proposal in this sense has constantly been delayed, despite the EU resolution in July 2006 and the announcement made by the Commission work programme in October 2007.
On the occasion of this debate, I would like to invite the Commission to clarify the reasons that led to the postponement of the publication of the forest package. Furthermore, I urge the Commission to present, without further delay, legislation which requires that only legally harvested timber and timber products are placed on the EU market.
I am afraid too much time has been wasted already. At this point I call on the Commission to speed up the procedure to put forward this important piece of legislation, so as to allow a first reading before the end of this parliamentary term. We need to ensure that we are sending the right messages and that we are sending them on time."@en1
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