The European Parliament adopted on 22 October a "report calling on the Commission to present a European legal framework to halt global deforestation caused by the EU". This framework aims to control supply chains in order to curb deforestation in the Amazon or Asia.
"Currently, there are no EU rules prohibiting the placing on the European market of products that have contributed to the destruction of forests. Consumers therefore do not know whether or not the products they have bought have contributed to deforestation, including irreplaceable tropical forests that are essential to the fight against climate change and the protection of biodiversity", explains Parliament.
The Wood Regulations extended to products imprimés??
The European Union Timber Regulation (EU Timber Regulation) aims to exclude illegally harvested timber and timber products from the EU market. In the new report, the European Parliament recognises "the limited scope of timber products covered by the current EU Timber Regulation" and calls for this scope to be "extended, for example, to printed products".
Intergraf, the European Confederation of Graphic Industries, welcomed the initiative.
"Illegal logging damages the reputation of the graphics industry and damages the image of printed products. It is not acceptable for the reputation of European companies to be tarnished because of the illegally sourced wood content of printed products which are marketed on the Community market' said Beatrice Klose, Secretary General of Intergraf.
The organisation also highlights unfair competition "between printed products manufactured in the European Union from compliant raw materials and those produced outside the European Union, which can be freely imported and placed on the European market regardless of the origin of their raw material".
No additional costs for printers and manufacturers
" The extension of the scope of the EUBER would not create additional regulatory burdens for European printers as the paper and board they buy is compliant. Instead, it would ensure that imported printed products offer the same guarantee as European products", says Laetitia Reynaud, political advisor at Intergraf.
