Danish-registered NEPCon, which has offices across Europe including in the UK, and Italian-based Conlegno, are the first companies to receive formal recognition from the European Commission and will now get to work as MOs helping “operators” under the EUTR comply with the regulation.
The EU reviewed NEPCon’s LegalSource due diligence system before making its decision.
“We have taken great efforts to ensure that our system is user-friendly whilst being aligned with the EUTR and other legal frameworks,” said Peter Feilberg, NEPCon executive director.
MOs help EUTR operators, typically importers responsible for first placing of timber products on the European market, fulfil their obligations by providing a due diligence system for legal timber sourcing and conducting regular evaluation of the users’ system implementation.
Working with an MO is voluntary and does not exempt timber traders from liability under the EUTR. Mr Feilberg believes the EUTR will be a game-changer because of the size of the EU timber market.
“We have experienced the greatest influx of FSC certification customers in our history over the past year,” he added. “We believe this is mainly happening in response to the EUTR.”
Non-profit organisation NEPCon provides sustainability services, including chain of custody auditing. Its LegalSource system was used as the framework for developing the due diligence system that the European Timber Trade Federation shares with its members. Conlegno, also a non-profit body, promotes the use of wood and is involved in various industry training initiatives.
