Proposal for a Council Decision on the signing, on behalf of the Union, of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Liberia on forest law enforcement, governance and trade in timber products to the European Union

The Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT), endorsed by the Council in 2003, proposes a set of measures, including support for timber-producing countries, multilateral collaboration to tackle trade in illegal timber, support for private-sector initiatives, and measures to discourage investment in activities that encourage illegal logging.

The cornerstone of the Action Plan is the establishment of FLEGT partnerships between the EU and timber-producing countries aimed at stopping illegal logging. In 2005 the Council adopted Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005 establishing a licensing scheme and a mechanism to verify the legality of timber imports into the EU.

In December 2005 the Council authorised the Commission to negotiate FLEGT partnership agreements with timber-producing countries in order to implement the Action Plan and, in particular, to encourage trade in verified legal timber imports into the EU from partner countries.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2011)369: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2011:369:FIN

European Commission: COM(2011)371: Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Liberia on forest law enforcement, governance and trade in timber products to the European Union http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0371:FIN:EN:PDF

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