The move follows hot on the heels of a similar agreement signed between the US and Indonesia in November last year, where the two countries agreed to share information on illegal timber trade and co-operate on law enforcement.
The EU-Indonesia agreement, once complete, will provide assurance that Indonesian forest products imported to the EU are verified as legal. The EU is the third largest market for Indonesian timber after China and the US.
About 70-80% of logging in Indonesia is done illegally on public lands, according to a recent World Bank report.
The pact is similar to an agreement between the EU and Malaysia.
