BETA


2018/0272M(NLE) EU/Vietnam Voluntary Partnership Agreement on forest law enforcement, governance and trade

Progress: Procedure completed

RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Lead INTA HAUTALA Heidi (icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE) PROUST Franck (icon: PPE PPE), ARENA Maria (icon: S&D S&D), ZAHRADIL Jan (icon: ECR ECR), LALONDE Patricia (icon: ALDE ALDE)
Committee Opinion DEVE ZAHRADIL Jan (icon: ECR ECR) Louis MICHEL (icon: ALDE ALDE), Joachim ZELLER (icon: PPE PPE)
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
RoP 105-p2

Events

2019/08/30
   EC - Commission response to text adopted in plenary
Documents
2019/03/12
   EP - Results of vote in Parliament
2019/03/12
   EP - Decision by Parliament
Details

The European Parliament adopted by 631 votes to 13 with 23 abstentions, a non-legislative resolution on the draft Council decision on the conclusion of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on forest law enforcement, governance and trade.

Vietnam became the third country in Asia to enter into negotiations on a forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) in 2010, after Indonesia and Malaysia. Negotiations were concluded in May 2017 and the agreement was signed on 19 October 2018.

The VPA’s objective is to provide a legal framework aimed at ensuring that all timber and timber product imports from Vietnam into the EU covered by the VPA have been produced legally.

VPAs are generally intended to foster systemic changes in the forestry sector aimed at sustainable management of forests, eradicating illegal logging and supporting worldwide efforts to stop deforestation and forest degradation.

Policy coherence

Recalling that sustainable and inclusive forest management and governance is essential to achieve the objectives set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement, Parliament called for the EU to ensure the coherence of the VPA with all its policies, including in the fields of development, the environment, agriculture and trade. It strongly support the FLEGT process with Vietnam given the country’s role in the timber processing sector, whilst noting, at the same time, that that the full implementation of the VPA will be a long-term process and that FLEGT licencing can start only once Vietnam has demonstrated the readiness of its Timber Legality Assurance System. Members took note of the challenges represented by coordination between the national and provincial levels.

Implementation

The implementation of the VPA must complement EU commitments to environmental protection and ensure coherence with commitments to prevent mass deforestation.

In this regard, Members called on the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) to:

- allocate adequate human resources to the implementation of this VPA;

- assist the Vietnamese authorities and civil society, including by making satellite images available to them.

The EU was also called on to direct its efforts towards the strengthening of Vietnam’s legal framework and institutional capacity by addressing the technical and economic challenges that impede the effective implementation and enforcement of existing national and international regulations.

The Government of Vietnam, for its part, should:

- adopt a due diligence system with all necessary steps to be enforced by the competent national authorities through sound and systematic checks on individual companies, and providing for requirements on third party auditing and public reporting by companies;

- provide for adequate, dissuasive and proportionate penalties for infringement of legislation implementing TLAS, which would in the case of imports include a full prohibition of the placing on the Vietnamese market of illegal timber, alongside the seizure of such timber.

Members welcomed the entry into force of the new Forestry Law on 1 January 2019, which includes a prohibition on imports of illegally produced timber into Vietnam. They urged the Vietnamese authorities to enforce this prohibition and to swiftly adopt implementing measures if necessary, with a view to bridging the gap until the Timber Legality Assurance System becomes operational.

Illegal trade

Condemning the illegal timber trade taking place across the Cambodian border, Parliament urged the Vietnamese authorities to immediately categorise timber from Cambodia as ‘high risk’ and to make sure Cambodian legislation on the harvest and export of timber is respected, in line with VPA commitments. They also urged the Vietnamese authorities to investigate, remove from function and bring to justice those responsible for having authorised and managed the illegal trade from Cambodia. The same measures should be applied to imports from other supplier countries where similar concerns exist or may arise, notably those in Africa, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Regional dimension

The resolution stressed the need to address the regional dimension of illegal logging and the transport, processing and trade of illegal timber throughout the supply chain. It called for this regional dimension to be included in the VPA evaluation process in the form of an assessment of the link between the existence of weaker enforcement mechanisms in other countries of the region and the increase of exports from such countries to the EU.

Members stressed that poor governance and corruption in the forestry sector accelerate illegal logging and forest degradation and emphasises the fact that the success of the FLEGT initiative also depends on tackling fraud and corruption throughout the timber supply chain.

Work should be carried out to stop widespread corruption.

Monitoring

Parliament called on the Commission to pay particular attention to trade in timber and timber products during the implementation of the FTA and to monitor trade flows closely in order to make sure that additional trade liberalisation does not entail additional risks of illegal trade. It asked the Commission to report to Parliament annually on progress made by Vietnam in implementing the VPA, and to foster dialogue and promote the EU Timber Regulation with the major importing countries in the region and major EU trading partners such as China and Japan.

Documents
2019/03/12
   EP - End of procedure in Parliament
2019/03/11
   EP - Debate in Parliament
2019/02/27
   EP - Committee report tabled for plenary
Details

The Committee on International Trade adopted the report by Heidi HAUTALA (Greens/EFA, FI) containing a motion for a non-legislative resolution on the draft Council decision on the conclusion of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between the European Union and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on forest law enforcement, governance and trade.

Vietnam became the third country in Asia to enter into negotiations on a forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) in 2010, after Indonesia and Malaysia.

Negotiations were concluded in May 2017 and the agreement was signed on 19 October 2018.

The VPA’s objective is to provide a legal framework aimed at ensuring that all timber and timber product imports from Vietnam into the EU covered by the VPA have been produced legally.

VPAs are generally intended to foster systemic changes in the forestry sector aimed at sustainable management of forests, eradicating illegal logging and supporting worldwide efforts to stop deforestation and forest degradation.

Policy coherence

Recalling that sustainable and inclusive forest management and governance is essential to achieve the objectives set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement, Members called for the EU to ensure the coherence of the VPA with all its policies, including in the fields of development, the environment, agriculture and trade. They strongly support the FLEGT process with Vietnam given the country’s role in the timber processing sector.

They took note of the challenges represented by the coordination between the national and provincial levels, which is necessary in order to adequately and consistently enforce the VPA throughout the country and called on the Government of Vietnam to ensure such coordination.

Implementation

The implementation of the VPA must complement EU commitments to environmental protection and ensure coherence with commitments to prevent mass deforestation.

In this regard, Members called on the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) to:

- allocate adequate human resources to the implementation of this VPA;

- assist the Vietnamese authorities and civil society, including by making satellite images available to them.

The EU is also called on to direct its efforts towards the strengthening of Vietnam’s legal framework and institutional capacity by addressing the technical and economic challenges that impede the effective implementation and enforcement of existing national and international regulations.

The Government of Vietnam, for its part, should provide for adequate, dissuasive and proportionate penalties for infringement of legislation implementing TLAS, which would in the case of imports include a full prohibition of the placing on the Vietnamese market of illegal timber, alongside the seizure of such timber.

Members welcomed the entry into force of the new Forestry Law on 1 January 2019, which includes a prohibition on imports of illegally produced timber into Vietnam. They urged the Vietnamese authorities to enforce this prohibition and to swiftly adopt implementing measures if necessary, with a view to bridging the gap until TLAS becomes operational.

Illegal trade

Members urged the Vietnamese authorities to investigate, remove from function and bring to justice those responsible for having authorised and managed the illegal trade from Cambodia and elsewhere. They urged the Vietnamese authorities to immediately categorise timber from Cambodia as ‘high risk’ and to make sure Cambodian legislation on the harvest and export of timber is respected, in line with VPA commitments. The two countries are called on to foster and improve dialogue, cross-border cooperation, exchange of trade data and information on risks related to illegal timber trade and the respective legislation in force, and encourages them to involve the EU in facilitating this dialogue.

Regional dimension

The report stressed the need to address the regional dimension of illegal logging and the transport, processing and trade of illegal timber throughout the supply chain. It called for this regional dimension to be included in the VPA evaluation process in the form of an assessment of the link between the existence of weaker enforcement mechanisms in other countries of the region and the increase of exports from such countries to the EU.

Members stressed that poor governance and corruption in the forestry sector accelerate illegal logging and forest degradation and emphasises the fact that the success of the FLEGT initiative also depends on tackling fraud and corruption throughout the timber supply chain.

Work should be carried out to stop widespread corruption.

Monitoring

The Commission is asked to report to Parliament annually on progress made by Vietnam in implementing the VPA and to put in place instruments to facilitate best practice exchanges between Vietnam and other countries that have already concluded VPAs with the EU.

Documents
2019/02/19
   EP - Vote in committee
2019/01/25
   EP - Committee opinion
Documents
2019/01/25
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2018/12/19
   EP - Committee draft report
Documents
2018/11/16
   EP - ZAHRADIL Jan (ECR) appointed as rapporteur in DEVE
2018/10/25
   EP - Committee referral announced in Parliament
2018/08/29
   EP - HAUTALA Heidi (Verts/ALE) appointed as rapporteur in INTA

Documents

Votes

A8-0093/2019 - Heidi Hautala - Vote unique 12/03/2019 12:39:10.000 #

2019/03/12 Outcome: +: 631, 0: 23, -: 13
DE FR IT ES GB PL RO SE NL CZ BE BG PT AT FI DK HU SK HR LT EL IE SI LV LU CY MT EE
Total
87
65
60
49
65
44
27
19
26
19
18
17
20
17
13
13
13
12
11
10
13
9
8
7
6
6
6
5
icon: PPE PPE
187

United Kingdom PPE

2

Belgium PPE

3

Denmark PPE

For (1)

1

Greece PPE

1

Luxembourg PPE

3

Cyprus PPE

1

Estonia PPE

For (1)

1
icon: S&D S&D
170

Netherlands S&D

3
3

Croatia S&D

2

Ireland S&D

For (1)

1

Slovenia S&D

For (1)

1

Latvia S&D

1

Luxembourg S&D

For (1)

1

Cyprus S&D

2

Malta S&D

3

Estonia S&D

For (1)

1
icon: ECR ECR
68

Romania ECR

For (1)

1

Sweden ECR

2

Netherlands ECR

2

Czechia ECR

2

Bulgaria ECR

2
2

Croatia ECR

For (1)

1

Lithuania ECR

1

Greece ECR

Against (1)

1

Latvia ECR

For (1)

1

Cyprus ECR

1
icon: ALDE ALDE
64

United Kingdom ALDE

1

Romania ALDE

3

Portugal ALDE

1

Austria ALDE

For (1)

1

Croatia ALDE

2
2

Ireland ALDE

For (1)

1

Slovenia ALDE

For (1)

1

Latvia ALDE

1

Luxembourg ALDE

For (1)

1

Estonia ALDE

2
icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE
49

Italy Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Sweden Verts/ALE

3

Netherlands Verts/ALE

2

Belgium Verts/ALE

2

Austria Verts/ALE

3

Finland Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Denmark Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Hungary Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Croatia Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Lithuania Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Slovenia Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Latvia Verts/ALE

1

Luxembourg Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Estonia Verts/ALE

For (1)

1
icon: GUE/NGL GUE/NGL
43

Italy GUE/NGL

Abstain (1)

2

United Kingdom GUE/NGL

1

Sweden GUE/NGL

For (1)

1

Netherlands GUE/NGL

3

Czechia GUE/NGL

2

Portugal GUE/NGL

For (1)

4

Finland GUE/NGL

For (1)

1

Denmark GUE/NGL

For (1)

1

Ireland GUE/NGL

3

Cyprus GUE/NGL

2
icon: EFDD EFDD
37

Germany EFDD

For (1)

1

Poland EFDD

1

Czechia EFDD

Abstain (1)

1

Lithuania EFDD

For (1)

1
icon: ENF ENF
33

Germany ENF

For (1)

1

United Kingdom ENF

4

Poland ENF

Against (1)

1

Netherlands ENF

4

Belgium ENF

For (1)

1
icon: NI NI
14

Germany NI

1

France NI

For (1)

1

Italy NI

For (1)

1

United Kingdom NI

For (1)

Against (1)

2

Poland NI

Against (1)

2

Denmark NI

1

Hungary NI

2
AmendmentsDossier
54 2018/0272M(NLE)
2018/12/11 DEVE 17 amendments...
source: 632.007
2019/01/25 INTA 37 amendments...
source: 633.070

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)

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  • date: 2019-01-25T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE633.070 title: PE633.070 type: Amendments tabled in committee body: EP
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  • date: 2018-10-25T00:00:00 type: Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading body: EP
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  • date: 2019-02-27T00:00:00 type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A8-2019-0093&language=EN title: A8-0093/2019 summary: The Committee on International Trade adopted the report by Heidi HAUTALA (Greens/EFA, FI) containing a motion for a non-legislative resolution on the draft Council decision on the conclusion of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between the European Union and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on forest law enforcement, governance and trade. Vietnam became the third country in Asia to enter into negotiations on a forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) in 2010, after Indonesia and Malaysia. Negotiations were concluded in May 2017 and the agreement was signed on 19 October 2018. The VPA’s objective is to provide a legal framework aimed at ensuring that all timber and timber product imports from Vietnam into the EU covered by the VPA have been produced legally. VPAs are generally intended to foster systemic changes in the forestry sector aimed at sustainable management of forests, eradicating illegal logging and supporting worldwide efforts to stop deforestation and forest degradation. Policy coherence Recalling that sustainable and inclusive forest management and governance is essential to achieve the objectives set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement, Members called for the EU to ensure the coherence of the VPA with all its policies, including in the fields of development, the environment, agriculture and trade. They strongly support the FLEGT process with Vietnam given the country’s role in the timber processing sector. They took note of the challenges represented by the coordination between the national and provincial levels, which is necessary in order to adequately and consistently enforce the VPA throughout the country and called on the Government of Vietnam to ensure such coordination. Implementation The implementation of the VPA must complement EU commitments to environmental protection and ensure coherence with commitments to prevent mass deforestation. In this regard, Members called on the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) to: - allocate adequate human resources to the implementation of this VPA; - assist the Vietnamese authorities and civil society, including by making satellite images available to them. The EU is also called on to direct its efforts towards the strengthening of Vietnam’s legal framework and institutional capacity by addressing the technical and economic challenges that impede the effective implementation and enforcement of existing national and international regulations. The Government of Vietnam, for its part, should provide for adequate, dissuasive and proportionate penalties for infringement of legislation implementing TLAS, which would in the case of imports include a full prohibition of the placing on the Vietnamese market of illegal timber, alongside the seizure of such timber. Members welcomed the entry into force of the new Forestry Law on 1 January 2019, which includes a prohibition on imports of illegally produced timber into Vietnam. They urged the Vietnamese authorities to enforce this prohibition and to swiftly adopt implementing measures if necessary, with a view to bridging the gap until TLAS becomes operational. Illegal trade Members urged the Vietnamese authorities to investigate, remove from function and bring to justice those responsible for having authorised and managed the illegal trade from Cambodia and elsewhere. They urged the Vietnamese authorities to immediately categorise timber from Cambodia as ‘high risk’ and to make sure Cambodian legislation on the harvest and export of timber is respected, in line with VPA commitments. The two countries are called on to foster and improve dialogue, cross-border cooperation, exchange of trade data and information on risks related to illegal timber trade and the respective legislation in force, and encourages them to involve the EU in facilitating this dialogue. Regional dimension The report stressed the need to address the regional dimension of illegal logging and the transport, processing and trade of illegal timber throughout the supply chain. It called for this regional dimension to be included in the VPA evaluation process in the form of an assessment of the link between the existence of weaker enforcement mechanisms in other countries of the region and the increase of exports from such countries to the EU. Members stressed that poor governance and corruption in the forestry sector accelerate illegal logging and forest degradation and emphasises the fact that the success of the FLEGT initiative also depends on tackling fraud and corruption throughout the timber supply chain. Work should be carried out to stop widespread corruption. Monitoring The Commission is asked to report to Parliament annually on progress made by Vietnam in implementing the VPA and to put in place instruments to facilitate best practice exchanges between Vietnam and other countries that have already concluded VPAs with the EU.
  • date: 2019-03-11T00:00:00 type: Debate in Parliament body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?secondRef=TOC&language=EN&reference=20190311&type=CRE title: Debate in Parliament
  • date: 2019-03-12T00:00:00 type: Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P8-TA-2019-0141 title: T8-0141/2019 summary: The European Parliament adopted by 631 votes to 13 with 23 abstentions, a non-legislative resolution on the draft Council decision on the conclusion of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on forest law enforcement, governance and trade. Vietnam became the third country in Asia to enter into negotiations on a forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) in 2010, after Indonesia and Malaysia. Negotiations were concluded in May 2017 and the agreement was signed on 19 October 2018. The VPA’s objective is to provide a legal framework aimed at ensuring that all timber and timber product imports from Vietnam into the EU covered by the VPA have been produced legally. VPAs are generally intended to foster systemic changes in the forestry sector aimed at sustainable management of forests, eradicating illegal logging and supporting worldwide efforts to stop deforestation and forest degradation. Policy coherence Recalling that sustainable and inclusive forest management and governance is essential to achieve the objectives set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement, Parliament called for the EU to ensure the coherence of the VPA with all its policies, including in the fields of development, the environment, agriculture and trade. It strongly support the FLEGT process with Vietnam given the country’s role in the timber processing sector, whilst noting, at the same time, that that the full implementation of the VPA will be a long-term process and that FLEGT licencing can start only once Vietnam has demonstrated the readiness of its Timber Legality Assurance System. Members took note of the challenges represented by coordination between the national and provincial levels. Implementation The implementation of the VPA must complement EU commitments to environmental protection and ensure coherence with commitments to prevent mass deforestation. In this regard, Members called on the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) to: - allocate adequate human resources to the implementation of this VPA; - assist the Vietnamese authorities and civil society, including by making satellite images available to them. The EU was also called on to direct its efforts towards the strengthening of Vietnam’s legal framework and institutional capacity by addressing the technical and economic challenges that impede the effective implementation and enforcement of existing national and international regulations. The Government of Vietnam, for its part, should: - adopt a due diligence system with all necessary steps to be enforced by the competent national authorities through sound and systematic checks on individual companies, and providing for requirements on third party auditing and public reporting by companies; - provide for adequate, dissuasive and proportionate penalties for infringement of legislation implementing TLAS, which would in the case of imports include a full prohibition of the placing on the Vietnamese market of illegal timber, alongside the seizure of such timber. Members welcomed the entry into force of the new Forestry Law on 1 January 2019, which includes a prohibition on imports of illegally produced timber into Vietnam. They urged the Vietnamese authorities to enforce this prohibition and to swiftly adopt implementing measures if necessary, with a view to bridging the gap until the Timber Legality Assurance System becomes operational. Illegal trade Condemning the illegal timber trade taking place across the Cambodian border, Parliament urged the Vietnamese authorities to immediately categorise timber from Cambodia as ‘high risk’ and to make sure Cambodian legislation on the harvest and export of timber is respected, in line with VPA commitments. They also urged the Vietnamese authorities to investigate, remove from function and bring to justice those responsible for having authorised and managed the illegal trade from Cambodia. The same measures should be applied to imports from other supplier countries where similar concerns exist or may arise, notably those in Africa, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. Regional dimension The resolution stressed the need to address the regional dimension of illegal logging and the transport, processing and trade of illegal timber throughout the supply chain. It called for this regional dimension to be included in the VPA evaluation process in the form of an assessment of the link between the existence of weaker enforcement mechanisms in other countries of the region and the increase of exports from such countries to the EU. Members stressed that poor governance and corruption in the forestry sector accelerate illegal logging and forest degradation and emphasises the fact that the success of the FLEGT initiative also depends on tackling fraud and corruption throughout the timber supply chain. Work should be carried out to stop widespread corruption. Monitoring Parliament called on the Commission to pay particular attention to trade in timber and timber products during the implementation of the FTA and to monitor trade flows closely in order to make sure that additional trade liberalisation does not entail additional risks of illegal trade. It asked the Commission to report to Parliament annually on progress made by Vietnam in implementing the VPA, and to foster dialogue and promote the EU Timber Regulation with the major importing countries in the region and major EU trading partners such as China and Japan.
  • date: 2019-03-12T00:00:00 type: End of procedure in Parliament body: EP
links
other
  • body: EC dg: url: http://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/trade_en title: Trade commissioner: MALMSTRÖM Cecilia
procedure/Modified legal basis
Rules of Procedure EP 159
procedure/dossier_of_the_committee
  • INTA/8/14681
procedure/legal_basis/0
Rules of Procedure EP 105-p2
procedure/legal_basis/0
Rules of Procedure EP 99-p2
procedure/stage_reached
Old
Preparatory phase in Parliament
New
Procedure completed
procedure/subject
Old
  • 6.10 Common foreign and security policy (CFSP)
  • 6.20 Common commercial policy in general
New
6.20.03
Bilateral economic and trade agreements and relations
6.40.08
Relations with Asian countries
procedure/summary
  • Accompanying procedure
activities
  • date: 2019-02-19T00:00:00 body: EP type: Vote scheduled in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • date: 2019-03-12T00:00:00 body: EP type: Indicative plenary sitting date, 1st reading/single reading
committees
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Development committee: DEVE
  • body: EP shadows: group: S&D name: ARENA Maria group: ECR name: ZAHRADIL Jan responsible: True committee: INTA date: 2018-08-29T00:00:00 committee_full: International Trade rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: HAUTALA Heidi
links
other
  • body: EC dg: url: http://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/trade_en title: Trade commissioner: MALMSTRÖM Cecilia
procedure
legal_basis
Rules of Procedure EP 99-p2
reference
2018/0272M(NLE)
title
EU/Vietnam Voluntary Partnership Agreement on forest law enforcement, governance and trade
geographical_area
Vietnam
stage_reached
Preparatory phase in Parliament
summary
Accompanying procedure
subtype
Motion for a resolution under consent procedure
type
NLE - Non-legislative enactments
subject