Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-000753/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Saskia Bricmont (Verts/ALE), Catarina Vieira (Verts/ALE)
As provided for in Article 29(4)(c) and (d) of the EU Deforestation-free Products Regulation (EUDR)[1], the Commission can evaluate whether the production of covered commodities and derived products may be in violation of human rights and relevant national laws. However, the General Principles Annex on the country benchmarking methodology published on 2 October 2024 indicates that the Commission will only consider illegality and rights violations in a ‘further assessment’ which is ‘possible’ but not required. This approach would fail to take into account human rights violations and illegality in areas at low risk of deforestation, and would fail to inform traders and competent authorities about risks of non-compliance with Article 3(b) EUDR.
- 1.Can the Commission clarify how the benchmarking process will assess illegality and human rights violations as part of its risk assessment in order to inform competent authorities, traders and operators about the risk of non-compliance with Article 3(b) EUDR?
- 2.To what extent will local and international stakeholders be involved?
Submitted: 19.2.2025
- [1] Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on the making available on the Union market and the export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation and repealing Regulation (EU) No 995/2010, OJ L 150, 9.6.2023, p. 206, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1115/oj.