BRUSSELS – The Joint Mission of Indonesia and Malaysia to European Union (EU) on 30 – 31 May 2023 was aimed to express both countries’ concern on the implementation of European Union Deforestation-Free Regulation (EUDR), which is seen hindering the access of palm oil to the EU market and impacting the smallholders who will be burdened with the requirements to comply with the EUDR.
During the Joint Mission, which was led by Indonesia’s Economic Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto and Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Plantation and Commodities of Malaysia Dato Sri Haji Fadillah Bin Haji Yusof, they met with a number of EU key officials, including High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell-Fontelles, Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevicius, Executive Vice President European Green Deal and Commissioner for Climate Action Policy Frans Timmermans, Vice President of the European Parliament MEP Heidi Hautala, and Chair of International Trade/INTA Committee MEP Bernd Lange.
They discussed a wide range of issues, which include the impact of the EUDR implementation to the market access of palm oil to EU, application of country benchmarking (labels of high risk, standard, and low risk to certain countries that will tarnish their global images), Geolocation Data (burdening smallholders and affecting data security), acknowledge of national and international standards of palm oil sector as mitigation steps of EUDR (RSPO, ISPO and MSPO), EUDR compatibility with the stipulations of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the commitment of Indonesia and Malaysia to protect the rights of workers based on the convention of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
As a follow-up step, they will seek to establish a mechanism of consultation or platform of dialog (task force) between Indonesia, Malaysia, and EU which can involve multi-stakeholders to design an implementing regulation of the EUDR that will not burden oil palm companies and smallholders.
Accompanying Minister Airlangga during the joint mission were the economic coordinating ministry’s Deputy for foods and agribusiness coordination, Indonesia’s Ambassador to Brussels, Foreign Minister’s Expert Staff in charge of inter-institution relations, oil palm plantation fund management board’s (BPDPKS) president director, and secretary general of the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries. (*)
Source: Agrofarm.co.id
