- Leading MEP Peter Liese calls on the Commission to postpone EUDR implementation;
- Indonesian palm and COPA-COGECA appear to agree on EUDR delay
Liese on the EUDR: “Postpone the implementation”
Peter Liese, MEP and Environmental Spokesperson for the MEP has again called for the postponement of the EUDR.
In an interview with Brussels Signal, the MEP stated that he is pushing for a two-year delay to the implementation and a potential revision of the regulation.
“I’m sure that we will make [the change], he said. “We need to discuss the details, of course, but I see more and more people supporting a change.”
Liese indicated that one of his chief concerns is smallholders in developing countries, which harks back to his own personal experience in Central America.
“You know I was working in Guatemala as a doctor. I worked with coffee farmers and I know that some of them don’t even speak Spanish, so for them to apply the tool of the European Union to prove that they didn’t cut forest is almost impossible.
“We need to make it easier and I think the problem is not the small coffee farmers, the problem is the big players that cut trees. We need to do it in better cooperation. When even the Biden Administration sends a letter to the European Commission that the way how we do it is provoking third countries and not helping the purpose, we need to think twice.
“I think we need to postpone the implementation and then get some rules that are easier to apply, particularly for small farmers and small forest owners. Exemptions for the small ones and at least an easier tool to do it and focus on the big deforestation people, right?
“We need to see that the small farmers in Europe and outside Europe get some easier way.”
Are COPA-COGECA and Indonesian palm on the same page?
It’s becoming more and more apparent to policy makers and officials that the poor consultation and drafting around the EUDR are undermining its good intentions. Business media has noted the heavy stockpiling currently taking place around certain commodities – including palm oil and coffee – in order to get shipments into the EU before the implementation date. This is causing significant spikes – robusta coffee hit all time historical highs last week.
However, it’s worth noting that major European agricultural groups – not just European trading partners — were warning of the risks of the EUDR much earlier in the year.
In March, COPA COGECA, Europe’s largest farmers’ group – and arguably the world’s most powerful farmer organisation – wrote to the Commission, highlighting problems with traceability, the information system and benchmarking, and stating that “European primary producers demand the revision of practical requirements raised.
They also wrote:
“It is highly unlikely that the framework conditions will be created with adequate involvement of relevant stakeholders in the anticipated timeframe. Therefore, the deadline for the entry into application must be extended.”
But, the common part of the shifting ground is small farmers:
“Small-scale landowners are likely to be disproportionally affected, as it becomes more attractive to source from large landowners. Reasons for this are greater legal certainty of sourcing from a few large operators compared to many small ones, and the fact that it is harder to reclaim costs from small-scale suppliers.”
This is precisely what palm oil producers and exporting governments have been stating.
Mongabay, a news outlet that has generally sided in favour of the EUDR this week pointed out the problems that it will create for small farmers.
“If the EUDR is implemented without any support for smallholder farmers, “many of us would be disadvantaged,” Jaharuddin [a palm farmer] says.”
It’s quite possible for the first time that COPA-COGECA and the Indonesian palm oil sector could be on the same page.