On 31 March 2022, the Rapporteur in the European Parliament’s ENVI Committee Christophe Hansen presented his draft report on the Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on the making available on the Union market of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation. This concerns commodities and products containing, for instance, cacao, coffee, soy and wood. The report is an important step in the right direction, because it eliminates the duplication created by the Commission proposal in asking both operators (producers, importers) and large traders (retailers) to produce due diligence statements, as we request in our position paper.
Instead, the Hansen report asks the first actor placing a commodity or product on the EU Internal Market to produce a due diligence statement, and then the following actors to transmit the information following a chain of custody approach.
Also in line with our position, the report also exempts products from due diligence by operators for which the ingredients contained in the product subject to this Regulation have already undergone due diligence and asks for geo-location coordinates for areas instead of plots of land, which were also part of our key demands.
Finally, the report acknowledges the importance of certification schemes, but unfortunately falls short of integrating them into the Regulation in a way that would really recognise existing efforts, and reduce burden for retailers.
The members of the European Parliament (MEPs) had until 21 April to table amendments. We are in contact with various stakeholders in the supply chain to jointly submit suggestions for amendments to the European Parliament.
