22 Amendments of Elisabeth KÖSTINGER related to 2013/2990(RSP)
Amendment 1 #
Citation 7 a (new)
– having regard to the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and cooperation between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Indonesia, of the other part dated 21 October 2009;
Amendment 2 #
Recital D
D. whereas Indonesia is home to the world’s third largest area of rainforests after the Amazon and the Congo Basin, but also the world's third largest emitter of climate changea significant emitter of greenhouse gases, mainly due to the continuing and lately rapidly increasing destructversion of its rainforests and carbon-rich peat-lands to other land uses such as for palm oil and paper,
Amendment 4 #
Recital G
G. whereas Indonesia’s forest sector ihas a high-crime sector with substantial risk of money laundering and tax evasion, according to INTERPOL and a World Bank study of 2012; whereas according to Indonesia’s 2010 anti-money laundering statute forest and environmental crimes are at a level of tax evasion and corruption as such as to trigger anti- money laundering prosecution,
Amendment 7 #
Recital K a (new)
Amendment 8 #
Paragraph 1
1. Commends Indonesia's enormous voluntary effort to resolve rampant illegal logging and associated trade with the development of its SVLK through a multi-stakeholder process and especially the significant progress achieved in recent months; remains, however, concerned of pcersistaing problems and retainstresses that the SVLK reform process still falls short tomust ensure the performance and the integrity of the system and the achievement of the stated objectives of the signed partnership agreement;
Amendment 9 #
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Welcomes the outcome of the negotiations on the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the EU and the Republic of Indonesia on forest law enforcement, governance and tade in timber products into the EU; reemphasis its support to a conclusion of the VPA;
Amendment 10 #
Paragraph 2
2. Notes with concern that less than half of thethat not all timber sources in question in the country have been SVLK- certified to date and that large and increasingstill volumes of unverified timber from forest clearance for agriculture, and pulp and paper plantations are entering the supply chain;
Amendment 11 #
Paragraph 3
3. Notes with concern that the SVLK at present does not require segregation between cUnderlines the importance of extending the coverage of the SVLK scheme to cover all timber production areas, and of ensuring that vertified legal timber and nois segregated from un-cvertified timber and is not auditing every stage of the supply chain, which makes it virtually impossible to secure legality at the mill gate or the export harbourso that the latter does not enter SVLK supply chains;
Amendment 12 #
Paragraph 5
5. Notes with concern that the grading system ofthat the SVLK leads to timber operations certified as legal even when land use conflictambiguities with indigenous peoples and local communities have not been resolved, and that the SVLK at present does not give a specific mandate to the Verification Bodies (VB) to assess whether undertakings have respected local land use rights; calls to clarify how traditional community rights to forests free and prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples and local communities are taken into account in legality verification;
Amendment 15 #
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission to make its approvalput emphasis ofn the SVLK conditional upon tfollowing when assurance thatpproving the SVLK: - all timber sources and their complete chains of custody are audited, including the verification that timber undertakings had the right to harvest in the first place, - certified and uncertified timber and timber products are kept separated, - conversion of natural forests for agriculture and pulp and paper plantations is minimized and the legal origin of timber from conversion areas is verified, including the existence of an AMDAL, and/or compliance with its stipulations regulating land use in concession.
Amendment 17 #
Paragraph 7
7. Takes note that the SLVK at present is not auditing company compliance with Indonesian anti-money laundering and tax statutes although, according to Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), there is ample evidence that many commercial concessions providing timber for Indonesia’s domestic and export markets, of all types, were at best dubiously acquired, and in some cases acquired illegally; retains that as long as corruption in Indonesia remains entrenched at all levels of government, the credibility for the country to issue FLEGT licenses remains at stakeCalls on the Indonesian government to complement the legality verification under the SVLK with actions to combat financial crimes linked to the forest sector such as money laundering and tax fraud;
Amendment 18 #
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Indonesian Government to follow up on its recent determination of enforcing tax laws and to require documentation ensuring that companies exporting timber are in full compliance with Indonesia’s tax statutes and the anti- money laundering statute of 2010, in recognition of the goals set out in the FLEGT Action Plan (Area 6 on the Use of Existing Legislative Instruments) even though the VPA currently does not require this and the SVLK at present is not auditing company compliance with these statutes;
Amendment 20 #
Paragraph 9
9. Notes with concern that the lack of up- to- date, transparent andpublically accessible data and maps which hampers good forest governance in Indonesia and can results in inconsistent and multiple interpretations of laws and conflicts with local and indigenous communities; underlines that the Independent Forest Monitors need to have access to such basic information in order to credibly perform their role, and that concession maps, cutharvesting plans and copiesinformation ofn permits should be a matter of public record;
Amendment 21 #
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Commission to make its approval of the SVLK conditional upon the assurance that: - a set of clear maps of forest zoning is agreed with Indonesia to determine origin and legal compliance of timber, - verification bodies publish in their summary reports digital copies of all documents, government approvals, maps and data used to assess compliance, -hrough its participation in the Joint Implementation Committee to ensures that the risk of fraud and corruption is substantially addressed, including through the preparation of a risk-based fraud control plan.
Amendment 23 #
Paragraph 11
11. Acknowledges the fact that certtimber legality verifications relyies almost entirely on the performance of auditors and Independent Monitoring (IM); commends the SVLK for the role it provides officially to Independent Monitoring (IM)M by civil society; notes, however, that the capacity of IM networks is limited in terms of human and capital resources and covers only about 5 per cent of total SVLK certifications issued by verification bodifinancial resources;
Amendment 24 #
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission to make its approval of the SVLK conditional upon the assurancwork closely with the Indonesian government to ensure that auditors and verification bodies as well as the independent forest monitors are adequately funded and trained to ensure regular field monitoring, spot checks and audits;
Amendment 27 #
Paragraph 13
13. Notes that the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry lacks a clearhas to further improve its policy for monitoring, cataloguing, and following up on company violation of the SVLK; regrets that companies found to operate in prohibited ways are in most cases only asked to pass another SVLK audit rather than reported to law enforcement authoritiestresses the utmost importance of reporting companies which are found to operate in prohibited ways;
Amendment 28 #
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission to make its approval of the SVLK conditional to the assurance that independent monitor reports signalling infringements are adequately responded to, and that dissuasive and effective sanctions, including possible criminal prosecution, are imposed for the violation of the SVLKStresses the importance to respond adequately to IM reports signalling infringements to relevant legislation, and that enforcement actions are taken by the relevant authorities where infringements to the legislation in question are detected;
Amendment 30 #
Paragraph 15
15. Underlines that the Independent Monitoring and the respect of the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities are critical factors lending credibility to the SVLK; stresses, therefore, that it is important that this commitment continues and that transparency towards other civil society stakeholders is enhanced, while it must be guarantee and that the independent monitor is able to function and thaing by civil society shall take place without violence, threats andor any form of abuse toward monitors isand that if this occurs it should be vigorously prosecuted;
Amendment 31 #
Paragraph 16
16. Calls on the Commission to make its approval of the SVLK conditional to tput emphasis on the following when assurance that: pproving the SVLK: - stakeholder involvement in the implementation and operationalization of the SVLK is continued and enhanced, - protection for independent monitors,ing by civil society organisations and citizens exposing criminal enterprises engaged in forest crimes is guaranteshall take place without violence, threats or any form of abuse and that if this occurs it should be vigorously prosecuted, - free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples and local communities is in all cases obtained, as a non-negotiable condition for any FLEGT license, - the SLVK audit requirements are regularly updated to incorporate new tenure legislation and in particular the recent decision of the Indonesian Constitutional Court that indigenous people’s land cannot be classified as state foresnot static but should be subject to a process of periodic review by Indonesian stakeholders with a view to its continuous improvement;
Amendment 33 #
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Calls on the Commission to uphold Indonesia's Constitutional Court Decision dated 6th May 2013 in the revision of the SVLK;
Amendment 36 #
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16b. Calls on the Commission to report regularly to the European Parliament on the progress of the implementation of the VPA and in particular on how the aforementioned issues have been and will be addressed properly;