- Peter Liese, the EPP’s Environmental Spokesperson has called on the Commission to delay the implementation of the EUDR;
- Liese has pointed out that many EU commodity producers themselves cannot cope with the EUDR;
- He highlights that the EUDR’s goals are correct, but the implementation process is simply not ready.
Read Liese’s statement in full
“The European Commission absolutely must postpone the entry into force of the deforestation regulation and then use the transitional period to reduce bureaucracy in the text,” demanded Dr. Peter Liese, environmental spokesperson for the largest political group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats).
The aim of the regulation is to be fully supported, the MEP continued: “We must do something about deforestation worldwide and take our responsibility seriously. It is unacceptable for areas the size of eleven soccer pitches to fall victim to deforestation per minute.
“However, the regulation has been turned into a bureaucratic monster by a majority of Greens, Social Democrats, Leftists and French Liberals.
“Many small farmers around the world and even small forest owners in the European Union cannot work with the text. Even the preparatory work that the Commission should have carried out has not been done. In addition, third countries are complaining massively about the legislation, including countries that are pursuing the same goal as we are, namely to stop deforestation. Most recently, in a letter dated May 30, the Biden Administration from the U.S. urged the Commission to postpone the entry into force.”After many discussions that Liese has had with representatives of the European Commission and representatives of other political groups, he is optimistic that the Commission will propose a postponement and that this will also pass through Parliament quickly.
“We can adopt the postponement in the short term making use of the urgent procedure so that all sides have time to breathe and then calmly discuss changes to the text that mean less bureaucracy but still protection against deforestation,” Liese emphasized.
Why the Liese statement matters
The EPP is the largest party in the European Parliament and the party of Commission President von der Leyen. Liese sits on the Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, where he serves as the EPP defacto leader.
Liese is the EPP’s Enviornmental Spokesperson and hardly an environmental regulation skeptic; he has been an avid supporter of carbon pricing, the EU Emissions Trading System and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. He was pushing for a stronger version of the EU’s carbon pricing mechanism but had to accept a weaker version.
But what Liese does advocate for is regulations that are actually practical. A key point in his statement is that he doesn’t want the regulation wound back in any fashion; he just wants it to work properly and be functional.
One point that is often lost on EUDR advocates is that if the regulation doesn’t work when it’s introduced, it will be ineffective over the longer term. His emphasis appears to be: Get it right when we start, otherwise it won’t have any impact on deforestation.
Another position that Liese will be supporting is that the EUDR is going to have a negative impact on manufacturing within the EU and potentially reduce its competitiveness, specifically for exports. There’s no question that the EUDR will push up the prices of commodities as inputs. In turn, this will make the exports of EU members — think Germany and Italy in particular — more expensive in the global market.