Forgive me. I didn’t mean to make this month’s comment all green and EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) again after focusing on the latter, and Greenpeace’s claims that timber from Brazil had breached it in July. But the Scorecard published by the European Commission on how the 28 member states have lived up to their obligations for implementing the Regulation leaves me with little choice.
The EUTR league table uses cutesy cartoon trees to signify where countries are up to on appointing a competent authority enforcement agency, laying down penalties, and introducing a regime of compliance checks on timber companies. But there’s nothing cutesy about its conclusions. Admittedly 16 countries are up to scratch on all fronts – Germany, the Netherlands and UK among them. But the rest are either still in the process, or haven’t even started on one or more areas of implementation.
The EC says it is now introducing "pilot projects" to show recalcitrant countries how to do it. If that fails, "infringement" procedures will follow.
European Timber Trade Federation (ETTF) secretary-general André de Boer said the disparity on implementation potentially undermines the effectiveness of the EUTR in keeping illegal timber out of the EU overall. It also threatened to damage the industry’s reputation in terms of its support for the war on the illegal trade, and that, ultimately, would be bad for business.
In fact, the reputational harm may already have started. Greenpeace has naturally jumped all over the "scorecard" and said it highlights the flaws in the EUTR and lack of commitment to making it watertight. An EU-critical news website called EurActiv has also alleged the Commission, in a move showing "proindustry bias", had blocked proposals for a common EU-wide illegal timber inspection regime. Instead it stuck with the current approach where individual countries interpret EUTR implementation in their own way (and, to an extent, to their own timetable).
As the ETTF and UK Timber Trade Federation have stated, it is in the interests of the whole industry now to see uniform EUTR enforcement sooner rather than later. To that end it needs to join lobbying forces EU-wide. Which brings me very briefly onto the other dramatic industry news this month; the proposal for the TTF and British Woodworking Federation to form a joint company, with a single chief executive. That would be quite a body, with considerable clout to back EUTR enforcement and influence other key areas in the interests of UK Timber plc.
