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4.104. The European Union is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; the UN Fish Stocks Agreement; the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing; and the Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Management Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas. It is also a member of 5 Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) managing highly migratory fish stocks, 13 RFMOs managing other fish stocks (2 more compared to the previous Review), and 2 RFMOs of only advisory status.

4.105. In addition to the domestic EU IUU regulation (Section 4.2.1) and related regulations affecting market access (Section 4.2.3), the European Union also continues to cooperate internationally to address IUU fishing. (...)

4.106. There have been some changes to the bilateral agreements between the European Union and third countries. (...) among the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs), the fisheries agreements with Liberia (in 2020) became dormant, and others were renewed or reactivated. (...)

4.107. Forest policy is not explicitly mentioned in the EU treaties, but a number of shared competences, such as climate, environment, rural development, and disaster prevention, relate to forests, meaning that within these areas, forests and forestry do not fall within the exclusive competence of member States. As key initiative under the European Green Deal, the Commission published an EU Forest Strategy for 2030 in 2021. The new strategy presents six areas of intervention covering sustainable forest use; protecting, restoring, and enlarging EU forests [128] ; monitoring; research and innovation; forest governance; and the enforcement of existing regulations.
[128] It includes a roadmap for the planting of 3 billion additional trees, as pledged in the EU biodiversity strategy.

4.108. Support to the forestry sector, focusing on the environmental dimension, has been provided under the RDPs [rural development programmes] and will be covered from 2023 under the CAP [common agricultural policy] strategic plans (Section 4.1.2.2), while Horizon Europe provides support to research and innovation activities relevant for forestry.

4.109. Imports of timber and timber products into the European Union are regulated by the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) based on due diligence requirements for operators to prevent illegal timber to be placed on the market, applicable to domestic and imported products. According to the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance & Trade (FLEGT) regulation , imports of forest products from partner countries that voluntarily have become a FLEGT partner country (currently only Indonesia) require a FLEGT licence based on a nationally established verification system. (...)

4.110. Going beyond these regulations affecting trade in illegally cut timber, the European Parliament and the Council, in December 2022, reached a provisional agreement on a regulation proposed by the Commission in 2021, aiming to prevent deforestation and forest degradation associated with commodities and products placed on or exported from the EU market. It focuses on creating a level playing field, minimizing the use of products from supply chains associated with deforestation or forest degradation, and increasing demand for "deforestation-free" products. The proposed regulation would cover wood as well as products such as cocoa, coffee, oil palm, cattle, or soya grown on former forest areas that were deforested after December 2020.

4.111. Replacing and repealing the EUTR [EU Timber Regulation], the proposed new regulation builds on both the EUTR and FLEGT [Forest Law Enforcement, Governance & Trade] regulations, which both underwent a fitness check evaluation in 2020. The proposed regulation would require products to be (i) "deforestation-free" (produced on land that was not subject to deforestation or forest degradation after 31 December 2020); (ii) produced in compliance with national laws ("legality"); and (iii) accompanied by due diligence statements. It would therefore build on and strengthen the existing due diligence and monitoring systems contained in the EUTR regarding the legal status of timber but adding the requirement of products being "deforestation free". Wood covered by a FLEGT licence would continue to be considered as having met the legality requirement.

4.112. The European Union continues its efforts of sustainable economic transformation as initially spelled out in the first EU Strategy for Sustainable Development in 2001, and most recently deepened in the European Green Deal and the Climate Law as well as the REPowerEU Plan. The key objectives of the European energy policy consist of completing the internal market while ensuring a fundamental shift towards an energy-efficient, cost-effective, and reliable system based on renewable and low-carbon energy, improving energy security, reducing emissions, and ultimately achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

4.113. A 2022 report by the European Environmental Agency found that the European Union had on average achieved its three targets for 2020 (i) of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to the 1990 levels by 20% (they declined by 31.9%); (ii) at least 20% of gross energy consumption being from renewable sources (actually 22.1%); (...)