mr president i should like to start by saying how relieved i am that at long last we finally have before us a proposal for legislation to tackle the problem of illegal logging
parliament has been waiting for this for an enormous amount of time and i warmly thank my colleagues for their persistent efforts to see it brought forward
i would also like to thank my colleagues for their outstanding cooperation in bringing us to the point of tomorrow's vote shadows and staff have truly pulled out all the stops so that we could complete parliament's first reading in the shortest possible time so as to be in a position to seek a first-reading agreement and thus to avoid any further delays
sadly however the painfully slow rate of progress in the council has put paid to that idea
so it seems that we will have to be content with concluding this work in the autumn following political agreement by the council in june and that is very disappointing both to myself and to many colleagues who have worked so hard
had the council been here i would have liked to have asked them for a guarantee tonight that they will do everything possible to reach a common position before the summer because this situation is incredibly urgent
illegal logging is a hugely serious problem against which the eu has preached for many years yet all the while continuing to provide one of the world's biggest markets for illegally logged timber and timber products
between twenty and forty of global industrial wood production is estimated to come from illegal sources and up to twenty of that finds its way into the eu
that depresses timber prices it strips natural resources and tax revenue and it increases the poverty of forest-dependent peoples
the longer-term effects are even more serious as commissioner dimas indicated since deforestation of which illegal logging is a major driver accounts for nearly one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions
with the copenhagen climate conference now on the horizon credible eu action on illegal logging is ever more important
but credible action means effective binding legislation
while the voluntary partnership agreements conceived under the two thousand and three flegt action plan have the potential to drive positive change to date only one has been signed and as long as their coverage is not universal the risks of money-laundering and circumvention are just too high
the good news is that we do finally have eu legislation the bad news is that the commission proposal is distressingly weak and will need comprehensive improvement in order to become meaningful and effective
in spite of commissioner dimas good words about the importance of tackling illegal logging the commission proposal as it stands simply is not up to the job
the preamble to the proposal states that weak rules to prevent trade in illegally harvested timber are at the root of the prevalence of illegal logging but what the commission has come up with i am afraid will do nothing to change that
quite simply the commission proposal as it stands will not achieve our aim of ensuring that the eu no longer provides a market for illegally logged timber
the most glaring gaping hole in the proposal is that it does not actually prohibit the import and sale of illegally logged timber perverse as that sounds
it requires only that operators at one particular point in the supply chain put in place a due-diligence system while everyone else is immune from any obligation as to the legality of the timber or the timber products that they trade
now that stands in stark contrast to the revised us lacey act adopted in may two thousand and eight which does enact an explicit prohibition on the import and sale of illegally logged timber and there is absolutely no good reason why the eu cannot emulate this
so while my report maintains the commission's suggestion that only operators who place timber and timber products on the eu market for the first time should be required to put in place a full due-diligence system since they are clearly the actors with the most influence it makes clear that all operators in the market share responsibility for trading only legally sourced wood and that failing to do that may constitute an offence
i should like to say to commissioner dimas that i really do believe that our proposals are supplementing due diligence they are making it more effective they are making it operational and there is no problem at all with wto rules
if the us can do it we should do it and that is why parliament is seeking to amend this proposal
