Indonesia and Malaysia’s Joint Mission to Address European Union’s Deforestation Free Regulation (EUDR) on Palm Oil Access

Jakarta –

Joint Mission of Indonesia and Malaysia to the European Union headquarters in Brussels, Belgium 30-31 May 2023. The presence of the two world palm oil producing countries aims to discuss the impact of the new European Union regulations, namely the European Union Deforestation Free Regulation (EUDR).

This rule is considered to be able to hinder access to palm oil to the European Union market and harm smallholders who will be burdened with the requirements of the regulation.

Quoting from the website of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, Wednesday (31/5/2023) the main activities of the Joint Mission led by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto and Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Plantations and Commodities of Malaysia Dato’ Sri Haji Fadillah Bin Haji Yusof was a meeting with some of the EU’s key officials.

Para pejabat itu di antaranya 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.

Then with MEP Vice President of the European Parliament Heidi Hautala, and Chair of International Trade/INTA Committee MEP Bernd Lange.

“In the meeting, the matters discussed included the implementation or impact of the EUDR on palm oil market access to the European Union, the application of country benchmarking (the application of high risk, standard and low risk labels to certain countries which are considered to damage the image). Geolocation Data (burdening smallholders and data security issues),” quoted from a written statement by the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy.

Apart from that, it also discussed the recognition of national/international standards for the palm oil sector as a mitigation measure from the EUDR (RSPO, ISPO and MSPO), EUDR compatibility with WTO provisions, as well as Indonesia and Malaysia’s commitment to protecting workers’ rights according to the ILO Convention.

As a follow-up to the meeting, the establishment of a consultation mechanism/dialogue platform (task force) between Indonesia, Malaysia and the European Union will be explored. This task force will involve multi-stakeholders in the framework of drafting EUDR implementing regulations that will not burden and burden the palm oil industry and smallholders.

During the series of meetings, those who accompanied the Coordinating Minister Airlangga included the Deputy for Food and Agribusiness Coordination at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, the Indonesian Ambassador in Brussels, Expert Staff to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Inter-Agency Relations, Main Director of the Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Agency, and the Secretary General of the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries.

(hns/hns)