At its Plenary
Session of 7 July 2010, the European Parliament adopted a compromise package
which had been agreed with the Council in view of reaching a second reading
agreement.
These
amendments concern essentially:
- the
imposition of a prohibition on placing on the EU market of illegally
harvested timber and timber products,
- the
imposition of an obligation on internal traders to keep records of from
whom and to whom they sell timber and timber products on a commercial
basis,
- recognition
and withdrawal of recognition of monitoring organizations to be done
centrally by the Commission,
- extension of
the date of application of the Regulation to 27 months,
- amendment of
the scope of applicable legislation through insertion of a reference to
forest management and biodiversity conservation legislation directly
related to timber harvesting,
- expansion of
the risk assessment criteria by adding UN Security Council or Council of
the European Union sanctions on timber imports or exports and prevalence
of armed conflict,
- authorisation
of the competent authorities to carry out check on operators and
monitoring organizations when in a possession of relevant information,
including substantiated concerns from third parties.
The Commission amends its proposal as set
out above.