Return of Von der Leyen bodes badly for Europe’s poorer trade partner
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Update September 19, 2024
An opinion by Barbara Moens, Max Griera and Jacopo Barigazzi for POLITICO describes Ursula von der Leyen's power grab which elevated her from Queen to Empress.
How will this play out in the EU's struggle for geopolitical influence on top of economic influence?
An opinion by Barbara Moens, Max Griera and Jacopo Barigazzi for POLITICO describes Ursula von der Leyen's power grab which elevated her from Queen to Empress.
How will this play out in the EU's struggle for geopolitical influence on top of economic influence?
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- Post election, the EU’s deforestation regulations have been regulated to the back seat as more pressing issues like defence take priority in the new but old Brussels..
- Virginijus Sinkevičius has stepped down from his role as the European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans, and Fisheries to take his new seat at the European Parliament. Leaving behind the bureaucratic bungle that is the EUDR.
- Will the EUDR be postponed?
The European Parliament has confirmed Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as President of the European Commission.
She will have a further five years to steer legislation at the helm of the EU’s main executive body.
The return of EU politicians with their out of touch opinions on what the world should look like spells trouble for the EU and its deforestation regulations.
Previously the EU’s Environment Chief, Virginijus Sinkevičius, spoke glibly on EUDR in a tour of Latam countries worried about EUDR.
“With the EU Deforestation Regulation entering into application at the end of this year, some of the countries affected are asking for discussions on the details, so I am answering that request,”
His answers were big on saving global forests but fell way short on addressing the concerns of trade partners.
Trade partners in south America maybe easy to brush off but the concerns of European ministers like Minister Cem Özdemir or Minister Norbert Totschnig are not as easy to brush off as they represent European industries. The problem with the EUDR is that while the popular narratives on the regulations have been around palm oil, soy, cattle and what nots, the EUDR has tentacles that reach down to books printed in the EU.
Asked about the industry's concerns, CEPI Director General Jori Ringman told Reuters it was unfeasible for book publishers, for example, to trace the origins of their paper back to potentially thousands of forest plots.
It should be a daunting question for Virginijus Sinkevičius as he handles official documents as a Parliamentarian. Is the pulp from which the paper was made from, EUDR compliant?
EU Competitiveness at Risk
The problem with the mess that Virginijus & Co created is the lack of details aside from the wishful “imports should be deforestation-free.”
Malaysia stands out as the only trade partner which declared it is ready to meet the requirements of the EU’s Deforestation Regulations for palm oil imports. But Malaysian palm oil imports make up only a small portion of commodities impacted by EUDR. As such, it may be quoted as an example of how countries should have reacted to EUDR but that could be a non-issue as the implementation of EUDR looms with most of the imported commodities being not ready to meet EUDR demands.
As the clock winds down to the implementation of the EUDR, major European chocolate brands are appealing to the EU “to launch a committee to coordinate with countries' national authorities, and give guidance on issues including legal interpretations and firms' due diligence obligations, to help companies prepare to comply by its Dec. 30 start date.”
The concerns of these chocolate makers is that they know, their palm oil imports are ready for EUDR but the main ingredient of their products, cacao, is not.
Meanwhile, the re-election of Ursula Von der Leyen as president of the European Commission may be bad news for industry Europe unless she begins her new term with a kinder gentler approach towards less wealthy nations that supplies so much of the EU's needs.
Will she spare a minute for opinions like that of Ignacio García Bercero, Former Director at the Directorate General for Trade at the European Commission as expressed in Worldbank?
There's a lot of consciousness in Europe that as we look to the implementation of legislation like the Deforestation Regulation, we need to be very conscious about potential impacts on low-income and low middle-income countries.
She should. Not for the sake of low-income countries, which she has shown no regard for but for the sake of industry Europe. Von der Leyen’s reelection speech was chocked full of inspirational words like building competitive European industries which may have appealed to her peers but trade and industry experts have met her return with gloom.
Business Europe needs to wake up to the real state of affairs in the EU according to Iana Dreyer for Borderlex.
“As the second von der Leyen term begins, the EU will be weakened by lame-duck governments in the biggest member states – France and Germany – where the far-right has surged and indecision will reign for the foreseeable future.
This is no time for business lobbies to submit their Christmas wish-list. To do trade agreements you need calm, patience and sufficient political support at home. The EU no longer has any of that. The house is on fire.”
This is bad news for Indonesia which filed a complaint at the WTO against the EU over perceived discrimination against palm-based biofuels. Indonesia has since filed a request to the WTO to suspend panel work until September 09, 2024 in the hope that a new crop of officials in Brussels may be more receptive to concluding IEU-CEPA trade talks. The IEU-CEPA talks, if successful, would have eased trade tensions due to the EU’s unfair treatment of palm oil as perceived by Indonesia.
Palm oil is of huge importance to Indonesia and Malaysia’s economies but is a small issue relative to the trade wars between the US, China and EU which Bloomberg reported as A New Trade War Offers No Easy Way Back for Old Global Order
Negotiating with the EU as a house on fire could be a waste of time and effort as the EU’s regulatory imperialism further leads to the isolation of the EU.
With Von der Leyen’s return, Indonesia should focus more on decarbonizing its own transports with palm oil in the mix for its own trains, planes and automobiles to meet its commitment to fighting climate change. Indonesia has done an admirable job of managing forests and biodiversity in the context of sustainable development which Von der Leyen may never acknowledge.
Malaysia as the second largest producer of palm oil and vociferous opponent of the EU's anti-palm oil policies has applied to join BRICs in the search for friendlier markets for its palm oil industry.
European Voters to Wake Von der Leyen?
Meanwhile, the pleas from FEDIOL, COCERAL, and FEFAC which “represent the EU vegetable oils and protein meal industry, the oilseeds and vegetable oils trade, and the compound feed and premix industry respectively urging the European Commission, Member States, and competent authorities to accelerate their preparations for EUDR entry into application and to immediately provide needed clarifications, solutions, and guidance on EUDR compliance.” have fallen on deaf ears so far.
What may wake Von der Leyen up are the millions of young European voters whose jobs at retail and wholesale are at risk because of EUDR. According to EuroCommerce:
“The many questions we have shared with the Commission during the past year, have so far remained unanswered. In addition, the appropriateness and readiness of the Information System (IS) and the application programming interface (API) remains a major concern.”
With millions of jobs at risk because of the EUDR, the safe bet is on the delayed implementation of EUDR.
CSPO Watch reached out to the CEO of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) Belvinder Sron on the issues and received the following response.
"Although Malaysia was the first country to highlight the potential issues stemming from the EUDR, the palm oil sector proceeded with a gap analysis for the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification to ensure compliance. The analysis conducted by the European Forest Institute (EFI) revealed that MSPO could be utilized by Malaysian exporters to meet due diligence requirements. However, the overall process of meeting these requirements will ultimately increase production costs, placing additional pressure on small farmers."
Published July 2024 CSPO Watch
Previously the EU’s Environment Chief, Virginijus Sinkevičius, spoke glibly on EUDR in a tour of Latam countries worried about EUDR.
“With the EU Deforestation Regulation entering into application at the end of this year, some of the countries affected are asking for discussions on the details, so I am answering that request,”
His answers were big on saving global forests but fell way short on addressing the concerns of trade partners.
Trade partners in south America maybe easy to brush off but the concerns of European ministers like Minister Cem Özdemir or Minister Norbert Totschnig are not as easy to brush off as they represent European industries. The problem with the EUDR is that while the popular narratives on the regulations have been around palm oil, soy, cattle and what nots, the EUDR has tentacles that reach down to books printed in the EU.
Asked about the industry's concerns, CEPI Director General Jori Ringman told Reuters it was unfeasible for book publishers, for example, to trace the origins of their paper back to potentially thousands of forest plots.
It should be a daunting question for Virginijus Sinkevičius as he handles official documents as a Parliamentarian. Is the pulp from which the paper was made from, EUDR compliant?
EU Competitiveness at Risk
The problem with the mess that Virginijus & Co created is the lack of details aside from the wishful “imports should be deforestation-free.”
Malaysia stands out as the only trade partner which declared it is ready to meet the requirements of the EU’s Deforestation Regulations for palm oil imports. But Malaysian palm oil imports make up only a small portion of commodities impacted by EUDR. As such, it may be quoted as an example of how countries should have reacted to EUDR but that could be a non-issue as the implementation of EUDR looms with most of the imported commodities being not ready to meet EUDR demands.
As the clock winds down to the implementation of the EUDR, major European chocolate brands are appealing to the EU “to launch a committee to coordinate with countries' national authorities, and give guidance on issues including legal interpretations and firms' due diligence obligations, to help companies prepare to comply by its Dec. 30 start date.”
The concerns of these chocolate makers is that they know, their palm oil imports are ready for EUDR but the main ingredient of their products, cacao, is not.
Meanwhile, the re-election of Ursula Von der Leyen as president of the European Commission may be bad news for industry Europe unless she begins her new term with a kinder gentler approach towards less wealthy nations that supplies so much of the EU's needs.
Will she spare a minute for opinions like that of Ignacio García Bercero, Former Director at the Directorate General for Trade at the European Commission as expressed in Worldbank?
There's a lot of consciousness in Europe that as we look to the implementation of legislation like the Deforestation Regulation, we need to be very conscious about potential impacts on low-income and low middle-income countries.
She should. Not for the sake of low-income countries, which she has shown no regard for but for the sake of industry Europe. Von der Leyen’s reelection speech was chocked full of inspirational words like building competitive European industries which may have appealed to her peers but trade and industry experts have met her return with gloom.
Business Europe needs to wake up to the real state of affairs in the EU according to Iana Dreyer for Borderlex.
“As the second von der Leyen term begins, the EU will be weakened by lame-duck governments in the biggest member states – France and Germany – where the far-right has surged and indecision will reign for the foreseeable future.
This is no time for business lobbies to submit their Christmas wish-list. To do trade agreements you need calm, patience and sufficient political support at home. The EU no longer has any of that. The house is on fire.”
This is bad news for Indonesia which filed a complaint at the WTO against the EU over perceived discrimination against palm-based biofuels. Indonesia has since filed a request to the WTO to suspend panel work until September 09, 2024 in the hope that a new crop of officials in Brussels may be more receptive to concluding IEU-CEPA trade talks. The IEU-CEPA talks, if successful, would have eased trade tensions due to the EU’s unfair treatment of palm oil as perceived by Indonesia.
Palm oil is of huge importance to Indonesia and Malaysia’s economies but is a small issue relative to the trade wars between the US, China and EU which Bloomberg reported as A New Trade War Offers No Easy Way Back for Old Global Order
Negotiating with the EU as a house on fire could be a waste of time and effort as the EU’s regulatory imperialism further leads to the isolation of the EU.
With Von der Leyen’s return, Indonesia should focus more on decarbonizing its own transports with palm oil in the mix for its own trains, planes and automobiles to meet its commitment to fighting climate change. Indonesia has done an admirable job of managing forests and biodiversity in the context of sustainable development which Von der Leyen may never acknowledge.
Malaysia as the second largest producer of palm oil and vociferous opponent of the EU's anti-palm oil policies has applied to join BRICs in the search for friendlier markets for its palm oil industry.
European Voters to Wake Von der Leyen?
Meanwhile, the pleas from FEDIOL, COCERAL, and FEFAC which “represent the EU vegetable oils and protein meal industry, the oilseeds and vegetable oils trade, and the compound feed and premix industry respectively urging the European Commission, Member States, and competent authorities to accelerate their preparations for EUDR entry into application and to immediately provide needed clarifications, solutions, and guidance on EUDR compliance.” have fallen on deaf ears so far.
What may wake Von der Leyen up are the millions of young European voters whose jobs at retail and wholesale are at risk because of EUDR. According to EuroCommerce:
“The many questions we have shared with the Commission during the past year, have so far remained unanswered. In addition, the appropriateness and readiness of the Information System (IS) and the application programming interface (API) remains a major concern.”
With millions of jobs at risk because of the EUDR, the safe bet is on the delayed implementation of EUDR.
CSPO Watch reached out to the CEO of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) Belvinder Sron on the issues and received the following response.
"Although Malaysia was the first country to highlight the potential issues stemming from the EUDR, the palm oil sector proceeded with a gap analysis for the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification to ensure compliance. The analysis conducted by the European Forest Institute (EFI) revealed that MSPO could be utilized by Malaysian exporters to meet due diligence requirements. However, the overall process of meeting these requirements will ultimately increase production costs, placing additional pressure on small farmers."
Published July 2024 CSPO Watch
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