28 Amendments of Simone SCHMIEDTBAUER related to 2021/0366(COD)
Amendment 36 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 18
Recital 18
(18) As a member of World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Union is committed to promoting a universal, rule- based, open, transparent, predictable, inclusive, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the WTO, as well as an open, sustainable, and assertive trade policy. The scope of this Regulation will therefore include both commodities and products produced within the Union and commodities and products imported to the Union, and therefore this Regulation must comply with WTO’s rules, and the measures listed in this regulation shall not be more trade- restrictive than necessary to fulfil the legitimate objective.
Amendment 49 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 46
Recital 46
(46) The risk of non-compliant commodities and products being placed on the Union market varies depending on the commodity and product as well as on its country of origin and production. Operators that source commodities and products from countries or parts thereof that do not present a risk should be subject to fewer obligations than those sourcing from negligible-risk ones. Operators sourcing commodities and products from countries or parts thereof that present a lownegligible risk of growing, harvesting or producing relevant commodities in violation of this Regulation should be subject to fewer obligations, thereby reducing compliance costs and administrative burden. Commodities and products from high-risk countries or parts thereof should be subject to enhanced scrutiny by the competent authorities.
Amendment 59 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) reducing the European Union’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and global biodiversity loss caused by deforestation.
Amendment 62 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1
(1) ‘deforestation’ means the conversion of forest to agricultural use, which would decrease the carbon sequestration of the land, whether human- induced or not; and excludes smaller than 0,5-hectare conversion of forest to agricultural use once per parcel by small and medium-sized enterprises.
Amendment 71 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 6
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 6
(6) ‘forest degradation’ means harvesting operations that are not sustainable and cause according to national legislation of the country of harvest and cause irreversible reduction or loss of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of forest ecosystems, due to forest use by humans, resulting in the long-term reduction of the overall supply of benefits from forest, which includes wood, biodiversity and other products or services; and where, after final felling, the site is not regenerated naturally or artificially, such as planting or seeding, as part of the forest management practices, leading to an overall decrease of forest growth on national level.
Amendment 73 #
(6) ‘forest degradation’ means harvesting operations that are not sustainable and cause a reduction or loss of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of forest ecosystems, resulting in the long-term reduction of the overall supply of benefits from forest, which includes wood, biodiversity and other products or serviccarried out in contravention of the applicable legislation in the country of harvest;
Amendment 77 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 7
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 7
Amendment 84 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8 – point a
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8 – point a
(a) that the relevant commodities and products, including those used for or contained in relevant products, were produced on land that has not been subject to deforestation after December 31, 2020the entry into force of the Regulation, and
Amendment 88 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8 – point b
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8 – point b
(b) that the wood has been harvested from the forest without inducing forest degradation after December 31, 2020the entry into force of the Regulation;
Amendment 96 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 9
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 9
(9) ‘produced’ means grown, harvested, raised, fed from or obtained on relevant plot of lan or fed;
Amendment 97 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 16
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 16
(16) ‘negligible risk’ means a full assessment of both the product-specific and the general information on compliance with Articles 3(a) and 3(b) by relevant commodities or products showing no cause for concern; certified commodities are considered to belong to the scope of application of negligible risk;
Amendment 99 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 19
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 19
Amendment 113 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 6
Article 4 – paragraph 6
6. Operators that have received new evidence-based information, including substantiated concerns, that the relevant commodity or product that they have already placed on the market is not in conformity with the requirements of this Regulation shall immediately inform the competent authorities of the Member States in which they placed the relevant commodity or product on the market. In the case of exports from the Union market, the operators shall inform the competent authority of Member State which is the country of production.
Amendment 128 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) quantity (expressed in net mass and volume, or number of units) of the relevant commodities andor products;
Amendment 130 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – point d
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – point d
(d) geo-localisation coordinates, latitude and longitude of all plots of land where the relevant commodities and products were produced, as well as date or time range of production(d) evidence through the due diligence system that the material for the product or commodity that has entered to the production chain has not caused deforestation, following the requirements of the competition legislation demonstrating that exact geo localisation coordinates of plot of lands is only known by the first operator in the chain; and taking into account that assortments may be mixed during the process;
Amendment 142 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 – paragraph 3
Article 9 – paragraph 3
3. The Commission may adopt delegatedimplementing acts in accordance with Article 33 to supplement paragraph 1 concerning further relevant information to be obtained that may be necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the due diligence system.
Amendment 147 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point c
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point c
Amendment 154 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point f
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point f
(f) the complexity of the relevant supply chain, in particular difficulties in connecting the supply chain commodities and/or products to the plot of land where they were produced;
Amendment 160 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 10 – paragraph 8
Article 10 – paragraph 8
Amendment 169 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 12 – paragraph 1
Article 12 – paragraph 1
1. When placing relevant commodities or products on the Union market or exporting them from it, operators are notonly required to fulfil thesimplified obligations under Article 10 where they can ascertain that all relevant commodities and products have been produced in countries or parts thereof that were identified as lownegligible or standard risk in accordance with Article 27. (a) Operators in negligible risk countries only have to fulfil necessary information requirements, meaning they are not required to: (aa) fulfil the obligations under Article 9 (1) lit g and h; (ab) fulfil the obligations under Article10; (ac) make available to the competent authorities via the information system referred to in Article 4(2) and Article 31 a due diligence statement before placing on the Union market or exporting the relevant commodities and products; (b) Operators in standard risk countries have to fulfil information requirements and a simplified risk assessment and risk mitigation.They are not required to: (ba) fulfil the obligations under Article 9 (1) lit g and h; (bb) fulfil the obligations under Article 10 (2) lit c to i.
Amendment 182 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 14 – paragraph 9
Article 14 – paragraph 9
9. Each Member State shall ensure that the annual checks carried out by their competent authorities cover at least, as defined in the risk-based approach, cover both 5% of the operators that are placing, making available on or exporting from the Union market each of the relevant commodities on their market as well as 5% ofnd the quantity of each of the relevant commodities placed or made available on or exported from their market.
Amendment 191 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 17
Article 17
Amendment 211 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 27 – paragraph 1
Article 27 – paragraph 1
1. This Regulation establishes a three- tier system for the assessment of countries or parts thereof. Unless identified in accordance with this Article as presenting a lownegligible or high risk, countries shall be considered as presenting a standard risk. For wood products listed in Annex I, the EU Timber Regulation shall apply until the Commission has assigned a country to a risk category. The Commission may identify countries or parts thereof that present a lownegligible or high risk of producing relevant commodities or products that are not compliant with Article 3, point (a). The list of the countries or parts thereof that present a low or high risk shall be published by means of implementing act(s) to be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 34(2). That list shall be updated as necessary in light of new evidence.
Amendment 214 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 27 – paragraph 2 – introductory part
Article 27 – paragraph 2 – introductory part
2. The identification of lownegligible, standard and high risk countries or parts thereof pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be based on a transparent checklist, showing to which extent each of the following criteria contributes to the assessment, and on predefined, measurable, and comparable indicators. To ensure that this checklist is implementable and adapted to local conditions, it should be agreed upon jointly by the EU Institutions and EU Member States. Furthermore, the identification shall take into account information provided by the country concerned and be based on the following assessment criteria:
Amendment 227 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 29 – paragraph 1
Article 29 – paragraph 1
1. Natural or legal persons shall be entitled to submit substantiated concerns to competent authorities when they deem, based on objective circumstacollected and sufficient evidences, that one or more operators or traders are failing to comply with the provisions of this Regulation.
Amendment 228 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 29 – paragraph 2
Article 29 – paragraph 2
2. Competent authorities shall diligently and impartially assess the substantiated concercollected and sufficient evidence, that is required in the existing legislation or competent authorities’ instructions, and take the necessary steps, including checks and hearings of operators and traders, with a view to detecting potential breaches of the provisions of this Regulation and, where appropriate, interim measures under Article 21 to prevent the placing making available on and export from the Union market of relevant commodities and products under investigation.
Amendment 233 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 29 – paragraph 3 a (new)
Article 29 – paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. The substantiated concern system shall not cause excessive administrative burden for the competent authority.
Amendment 246 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex II – paragraph 1 – point 3
Annex II – paragraph 1 – point 3
3. Country of production and all plots of land of production, including geo- localisation coordinates, latitude and longitude. Where a product or commodity contains materials, ingredients or components produced in different plots of land, theEvidence through the due diligence system that the material for the product or commodity that has entered to the production chain has not caused deforestation, following the requirements of the competition legislation demonstrating that exact geo- localisation coordinates of all different plots of land shall be includedplot of lands is only known by the first operator in the chain; and taking into account that assortments may be mixed during the process;