Commissioners to discuss illegality

A debate on the possible introduction of laws banning the import of illegal timber into Europe looks set to finally take place on October 15.

Two previous discussions on the issue were postponed, with the European Commission taking the topic off the agenda for a meeting on September 10.

The official reason for the delay has been the lack of time to debate the issue because of the volume of European business to discuss, but behind the scenes there are rumours of several European timber companies being unhappy with the introduction of new laws.

European commissioners will gather on October 15 to put forward a proposal which, if agreed, will then go to the European Parliament for amendments and then to the European Council for a decision.

John White, chief executive of the UK Timber Trade Federation and also vice-president of the European Timber Trade Association, told TTJ that it was vital that legislation was passed to ban the import of illegal timber.

Otherwise, he warned, the European Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan’s voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) process could be undermined.

“Why should a country go through the FLEGT VPA process if the EU is not prepared to ban illegal timber imports? FLEGT is where the EU has put all its eggs.

“Ghana has already signed a VPA and a number of other countries are close behind. They will be thinking that unless the EU puts some kind of legislation in place, where is the incentive for them to sign up?”

Without legislation, he added, competitors in non-VPA countries would still be able to export illegal wood products to Europe.