Chaos in the vote: One year of extension to the forest clearance regulation

The controversial deforestation regulation was voted on Thursday in the EU Parliament in Brussels.

The forest clearance decree was already agreed upon once in the council and parliament, but the largest group in the parliament, the center-right EPP, wanted the decree to be changed and therefore the group made a 15-point amendment proposal for Thursday’s vote.

According to EPP, the main goal of the group was to reduce the bureaucracy included in the regulation. EPP’s amendment proposal also included significant content changes.

The EPP’s soloing made the Democrats, Greens, Liberals and the left of the parliament nervous, because they considered that an agreement had already been reached on the regulation.

Before the vote, however, the EPP withdrew most of its 15-point demands.

Chaos in voting

Thursday’s voting took place in a chaotic atmosphere when the parliament’s new voting machines did not work.

Many MEPs criticized the speaker Roberta Metsolaawho refused to allow a rerun of the vote even though all the machines were not working.

In the end, the parliament approved a one-year postponement of the decree with clear numbers of 371 for, 240 against (30 abstentions).

MEP Elsi Katainen (Renew Europe/central) says that he is satisfied with the acceptance of the postponement. At the same time, he scolds the largest group in the parliament, the EPP, for making the process difficult.

“The revisions brought to the table by the EPP in the last few meters unnecessarily complicated the process and jeopardized the entire extra time, even though they withdrew some of them just before the vote,” says Katainen.

According to the Central MEP, it is still important that the Parliament accepted the Commission’s proposal to postpone the regulation, so that various actors have the opportunity to prepare for the requirements brought by the regulation.

There is a stir around the woods again: the already agreed regulation was torn open in Brussels

A significant change

In terms of content, the biggest change in the deforestation regulation approved by Parliament is a new risk category, the so-called no-risk category.

The EPP wanted a change in the definition used to classify countries with regard to the risk of deforestation. The change was finally approved with the support of the extreme right.

MEP of the Greens Maria Ohisalon According to (Greens/Efa), Finland also belongs to the countries with no risk of deforestation in the future.

According to Ohisalo, no-risk countries would be countries whose forest area has been stable or increased since 1990, and which have signed the Paris Agreement and international conventions on human rights. As well as agreements to prevent deforestation, which have their own national legislation to prevent deforestation.

“I am disappointed and dismayed that the coalition’s euro group EPP, with the support of the extreme right, watered down the deforestation regulation, which is vital for the fight against global deforestation,” says Ohisalo.

According to him, the change leaves most of the countries outside the regulation, such as almost all EU countries and China.

“The definition of the new category leaves so much room for interpretation that it practically dilutes the entire regulation, as was certainly the intention of the EPP,” Ohisalo criticizes.

The final proposals for risk categories will be made later by the commission.

In the process of approving the forest clearance regulation, the next step is the trilogy negotiations between the Commission, the Parliament and the member states.

The Center’s Katainen considers it very likely that the Commission and the Council of the Member States will not agree to the proposals for changes in the Parliament’s position regarding the new risk category, because it changes the content of the legislation significantly and there is no clarity about its effects.