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

Questions

This list of questions aims to provide guidance for consultees on areas of particular interest to the UK. However, these are our indicative questions; please feel free to submit your views in whatever form is most appropriate to you.
The UK Government would also welcome any comments on the amendments to the proposal suggested by the European Parliament (PDF).

Specific questions relating to SME impacts have also been included within this questionnaire.

General

  1. Are you content that the costs and benefits reflected in this consultation impact assessment reflect the actual costs to your organisation? Please provide any evidence of further potential costs and benefits.
  2. Are you content that a prohibition on the placing of illegal timber on the Community market for the first time would strengthen the Regulation in a proportionate and appropriate way?

The Regulation

Subject Matter (Article 1)
  1. Are you content with the scope of the current proposal, which covers only those operators who first place timber on the EU market?
Definitions (Article 2)
  1. Are the definitions of ‘operator’, ‘placing on the market’, and ‘risk management’ clear in their coverage?
  2. Is the range of legislation captured in ‘applicable legislation’ clear in its scope, and what is the feasibility of collecting or having access to the information required within this legislation?
  3. Are you content with the exemption for biomass and related products?
Obligations (Article 3)
  1. Are you content with the exemptions for 338/97 (CITES) and 2173/2005 (FLEGT)?
Due Diligence Systems (Article 4)
  1. Are the information requirements of the due diligence system sufficient for ensuring legality? Do you have any concerns with either obtaining, or making available this information?
  2. Should the Risk Management criteria and procedures be further clarified, or are these sufficient for now, ahead of further elaboration in an Implementing Regulation?
  3. Are you content that the responsibility for the development of criteria to assessing the risk of illegally harvested timber rests with the European Commission, and do you have views on how to best develop useful and relevant criteria?
Monitoring Organisations (Article 5)
  1. Are you content with the principle that, where possible or relevant, the existing due diligence systems developed by Monitoring Organisations can be used?
  2. Is the Regulation sufficiently clear on the duties, responsibilities and requirements of Monitoring Organisations?
  3. Do you agree that Monitoring Organisations should be approved and checked by UK authorities (rather than EU level checks and approval)?
Monitoring Measures
  1. Is the Regulation sufficiently clear on the level and nature of checks by the Competent Authority? How could this be improved?
Record of Checks (Article 8)
  1. Are you content with this record keeping requirement?
Cooperation (Article 9)
  1. Are you content with the principle of cooperation between Member States? Would you like to see this cooperation extended to other areas of the Regulation?
Competent Authority (Article 10)
  1. Are you content with the requirements and duties assigned to the Competent Authority (including those in other Articles of the Regulation)?
Committee (Article 11)
  1. Are you content with the establishment of the Committee for exchanging information between Member States on the checks carried out, and are its roles and responsibilities sufficiently clear?
Entry Into Force (Article 15)
  1. Are you content with the timing for the Regulation to enter into force?
Products In Scope (Annex)
  1. Are you concerned about particular products which fall into, or out of scope of the Regulation?
  2. Are you content with the principle that this list can be amended by the Commission (Article 12)?
Small and Medium Enterprises
  1. What are the characteristics of your business? For example, number of employees, size, ownership type (sole proprietor, partnership, limited company, etc), geographic distribution?
  2. What changes, if any, will your company have to make to the way your business operates in order to comply with the Regulation?
  3. Do you have a view of the likely approximate costs and benefits of the proposed due diligence requirement for your business? What are these?
  4. Has our impact assessment captured these costs well?

Page published: 26 March 2009