Consultation on a European Commission Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the obligations of operators who place timber and timber products on the market

Dear Consultee

We are writing to seek your views on the draft European Commission proposal 5036/09: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the obligations of operators who place timber and timber products on the market (known as the Due Diligence Regulation). The Proposal was published by the European Commission in October 2008, and aims to put in place a new risk-based approach, to be applied by operators placing timber or timber products on the EU market for the first time. The UK is considering a possible strengthening of the Regulation to include a prohibition on the import of illegal timber. We would welcome your views on this possible approach.

We welcome views from all stakeholders on the potential impacts, costs, and benefits of the proposed Regulation. Your responses will help to develop the proposal in the European Council of Ministers.

The Proposed Regulation

The objective of the proposal is to reduce the volume of illegal timber entering the EU, and to change operator behaviour towards minimising the risk of sourcing illegal timber and placing it on the Community market for the first time. Operators will be required to apply a risk-based approach to remove timber and timber products harvested in contravention to the laws of the country of origin from their supply chains. Timber traders and EU domestic producers must exercise due diligence to minimise the risk that the timber they trade is illegal. In addition, we are consulting on the possibility of including a prohibition on the import of illegal timber in the Regulation, which is intended to incentivise further action to be taken to ensure the legality of high risk timber and timber products.

The draft Regulation is intended as a broad framework, to be supplemented by more detailed implementation requirements, following agreement in the European Council of Ministers of the initial Regulation. As such, the proposal does not provide comprehensive detail on how individual organisations must comply with the risk assessment processes, or the detail of individual Member State enforcement and compliance systems. The Commission has indicated that:
Further details will be laid down by way of implementing measures in order to facilitate implementation, notably with respect to the identification of the criteria for determining the presence of a high or low risk that illegally harvested timber and timber products are placed on the Community market. In laying down those implementing measures the following principles should be respected: the need to avoid putting any unnecessary burden on the operators; the balance of costs and benefits to operators covered by this Regulation; the need to respect the necessary flexibility in the application of the implementing measures; the need to facilitate the adaptation of small operators to the requirements laid down in this Regulation.

Thus, we seek views on the principles of due diligence and risk assessment, and the option for the inclusion of a prohibition on placing illegal timber and timber products on the Community market for the first time, with a commitment to continue engagement with stakeholders on the specific details of a new system, to be determined once political agreement has been reached on these broad features of the Regulation.

Developments in the European Parliament

This legislative proposal is being developed through a process of co-decision in which the European Council of Ministers, and Parliament, will come to agreement on the Regulation. The European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Health and Food Safety has suggested substantial amendments to the draft Commission Regulation (PDF). The UK would welcome views from consultees on the suggested amendments by the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Health and Food Safety, including on the costs, benefits and impacts of the suggested amendments.

Consultation Impact Assessment

This public consultation is accompanied by an Impact Assessment which will be published on the Defra website in the week beginning 30th March 2009.

This Impact Assessment seeks to identify the likely impact of the proposed Regulation on a range of UK stakeholders, including importers and timber producers within the EU, and different industry sectors, including furniture, construction and paper under 3 different scenarios. However, we acknowledge that this impact assessment is based on incomplete information, and should thus only be considered as a guide for consultees in making their views known. We also welcome further information on potential costs and benefits.

We have also attempted to provide a robust assessment of the impacts on small and medium size enterprises, whilst recognising that there is incomplete information on the possible impacts on this sector. We have also included information on positive benefits outside of the UK, and of the EU, as this is the primary driver of the proposed legislation (although these benefits are difficult to quantify).

Timing

Due to the rapid pace of the EU negotiations on the draft Regulation, we are seeking views in a shortened 6 week consultation period in preparation for further EU discussions. Responses should be received by 8th May 2009, but please note that we will aim to take into account any strong views received after the closing date as negotiations continue.

Responses

We have asked specific questions to consultees to guide the responses, and while it would be useful if consultees could provide their views in this format, we welcome comments in any format. Please send your responses and comments to the proposal to:
illegal.logging@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Documents

The following documents can be viewed at: www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/ddr/index.htm

Consultation Criteria

This consultation has been prepared in line with the Government code of practice which is available from the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. 

When this consultation ends, we will put copies of all responses in the Defra library at Ergon House, Horseferry Road, London.  This is so that the public can see them.  Also, members of the public may ask for a copy of responses under Freedom of Information legislation.

If you do not want your response - including your name, contact details and any other personal information – to be publicly available, please say so clearly in writing when you send your response to the consultation.  Please note, if your computer automatically includes a confidentiality disclaimer, that won’t count as a confidentiality request.
Please explain why you need to keep details confidential.  We will take your reasons into account if someone asks for this information under freedom of information legislation.  But, because of the law, we cannot promise that we will always be able to keep those details confidential. 

A summary of responses will be placed on our website at: www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/ddr/index.htm

This summary will include a list of names of organisations that responded but not people’s personal names, addresses or other contact details. To see consultation responses and summaries, please contact the library at:
Defra Information Resource Centre, Lower Ground Floor, Ergon House, 17 Smith Square, London, SW1P 3JR; Telephone: 020 7238 6575
Email:  defra.library@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Please give the library 24 hours’ notice.  There is a charge for photocopying and postage.

If you have any comments or complaints about the consultation process, please address them to Marjorie Addo, Defra’s Consultation Co-ordinator, Area 7C Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR, or email consultation.coordinator@defra.gsi.gov.uk. Thank you for your interest in the consultation.  If you have any queries, please contact us as above.

Yours faithfully,

Madeleine Garlick, International Forest Policy
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Page published: 26 March 2009