“Once again the European People’s Party has left the forestry industry out in the cold. The German EPP negotiator withdrew the “no risk category” in the deforestation regulation in the trilogue despite the decision of the EU Parliament,” criticized the liberal European Parliamentarian Mag. Roman Haider, the parliamentary negotiator for the new EU deforestation regulation Christine Schneider from the EPP sharp.
In November, the EU Parliament passed several amendments to the highly controversial EU deforestation regulation. In particular, in addition to the three categories provided (low risk of deforestation, standard risk, high risk), a fourth category should be introduced for states that are not at risk of deforestation. This means that the strict rules of the Deforestation Ordinance, which involve enormous bureaucratic effort, should de facto not apply to such states. It is precisely this particularly important change that the EPP has now withdrawn in the trilogue negotiations.
“In reality, it was all just a bit of theater and a perfidious diversionary tactic, as the EPP’s current collapse shows,” said Haider. The EPP had originally co-decided on the draft submitted by the Commission without the “no risk category” and only agreed to the corresponding changes at the very last moment after massive criticism, only to immediately betray this position again.
“This shows once again the People’s Party’s perfidious double game. At home, people supposedly advocate for the interests of agriculture and forestry, only to immediately give in again in Brussels,” Haider concluded.
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