The EU likes to be the pioneer in climate and environmental protection.

At the same time, however, it must be accused of exporting some of its own problems.

It contributes to the deforestation of the rainforest by importing products such as soy, beef and palm oil.

At the same time, the international community exports waste on a large scale to third countries without ensuring environmentally friendly disposal or recycling.

Hendrik Kafsack

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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The EU Commission now wants to remedy these two points at least.

The importers of soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa and coffee as well as some processed products such as leather and chocolate should in future prove that no forest was cleared for production.

The export of waste is linked to compliance with environmental standards in the destination country.

420 million hectares of forest cleared

"If we expect ambitious climate and environmental policies from our partners, we must stop exporting our pollution and promote deforestation," said Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius, explaining the two proposals in Brussels on Wednesday.

It is estimated that 420 million hectares of forest were cleared between 1990 and 2020.

That corresponds to an area larger than the EU.

According to the European Parliament, ten percent of this can be traced back to the consumption of Europeans. In order to at least slow down the development, the Commission wants to make importers responsible. Before importing the products mentioned, you should determine the geodata of their location. In combination with satellite images, this should ensure that they do not come from areas that were still forested at the beginning of this year. In order not to overwhelm the importers, a transitional period of one year is planned, for micro-enterprises two years.

The Commission has initially limited the list of affected products to those for which, according to its analysis, a lot of forest will be cleared. Contrary to what the EU Parliament recently called for, the Commission initially left rubber and maize out of the equation. However, the product list should be checked and adjusted regularly. The new EU rules target countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Ivory Coast, Indonesia and Malaysia in particular. Above all, the clearing of the rainforest in Brazil is a politically sensitive issue because the European Parliament and some EU states are blocking the ratification of the free trade agreement with the South American Mercosur states. The Green MEP Anna Cavazzini described the proposal as "groundbreaking".Like the SPD MP Delara Burkhardt, she criticized the fact that he did not refer to other agricultural areas such as the Brazilian Cerrado savannah in order to prevent the destruction of such ecosystems.

The CDU member Hildegard Bentele, on the other hand, welcomed the fact that the clear reference to “forest” and the restriction to the most critical raw materials prevented “excessive administrative effort for companies”. The European Parliament, as well as the Council of Ministers, the body of the member states, must approve the two proposals for them to come into force.

The new rules for the export of waste mainly apply to countries that are not members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), i.e. in Africa and large parts of South America and Asia.

Rubbish exports to these countries in particular have increased noticeably in recent years.

In future, non-OECD countries should submit an application before the EU allows exports to these countries.

To do this, they have to prove that the waste is disposed of or recycled in an environmentally friendly manner.

In addition, the Commission wants to monitor exports to OECD countries more closely and, in case of doubt, ban them.

The export companies should ensure that the environmental standards of the end users in all non-EU countries are regularly checked by an independent party.