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FLEGT REGULATION:
UNION-WIDE
OVERVIEW FOR THE
YEAR 2019
Overview based on the analysis of information
on the application of the Forest Law
Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT)
Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No
2173/2005), submitted by EU Member States

© hilmawan nurhatmadi / Adobe Stock

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Introduction and background

In 2005, the European Union (EU) adopted Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005 of 20 December 2005 on
the establishment of a FLEGT licensing scheme for imports of timber into the European Community
(hereinafter the FLEGT Regulation), as part of the implementation of the 2003 EU Action Plan on Forest
Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT). In 2008, the Commission also adopted
Implementing Regulation (EC) No 1024/2008 laying down detailed measures for the implementation
of the FLEGT Regulation.
As of 2020, Member States are required to make available to the public, by 30 April of each year,
information on the application of the FLEGT Regulation during the previous calendar year (Article 8 of
the FLEGT Regulation as amended by Article 9 of the Regulation (EU) 2019/1010 of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the alignment of reporting obligations in the field of
legislation related to the environment) (Reporting Alignment Regulation 2019).
To facilitate reporting on and monitoring of the application of the FLEGT Regulation, the European
Commission provided the Member States with an online questionnaire, which allowed them to gather
essential information on their key obligations, as well as to provide information on practical aspects
of implementation and enforcement and make it public in line with their reporting obligations.
Information that Member States provided was based on the format used in previous years and
covered the following:
(a) quantities of timber products imported into the Member State under the FLEGT licensing scheme,
as per Harmonised Commodity (HS) heading specified in Annexes II and III of the FLEGT Regulation
and per each partner country (Figure 2);

(b) the number of FLEGT licences received (i.e. the number of FLEGT licences lodged with the
Competent Authority), as per HS Heading specified in Annexes II and III and per each partner
country (Figure 1);

(c) the number of cases and quantities of timber products involved where Article 6(1) – on shipments
not covered by a FLEGT licence – has been applied (i.e. acting in accordance with national
legislation where shipments were not covered by a FLEGT licence; Figure 3)).

In 2019, Indonesia was the only partner country issuing FLEGT licences.
The information provided by Member States is a means to assess the status of implementation and
the level of consistency achieved across the Member States, and the Commission makes public an
annual union-wide overview (this document) based on this information (Article 9(3) of Regulation (EU)
2019/1010). The methodology for data analysis, further details of the datasets submitted in 2020 by
27 out of 28 Member States (as of 2019) and the associated caveats resulting from the varying
completeness and quality of national datasets is available here.

Published October 2020

Copyright European Commission 2020

Citation European Commission, 2020. FLEGT Regulation: Union-wide Overview for the year 2019. Overview based on the analysis of
information on the application of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No
2173/2005), submitted by EU Member States.
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Number of FLEGT licences received

In 2019, 33 302 FLEGT licences FLEGT licences were Customs cleared
were received by 26 Member validated within 3 days of 25 886 FLEGT
States’ Competent Authorities, receipt in 69.7% of cases licences (data
of which 32 973 (99%) were (where time to validation available for 25
validated. could be calculated). Member States).

40
(31686)
Thousands

Discrepancies 30 5790* Discrepancies potentially

potentially due to: 20 due to:
37720 33302
-Issued licences not 25896 -Self-declarations
being used
10 -Year-end trade
-Year-end trade 0 -Licences being queried,
-Trade originally Licences issued EU CA licences EU customs rejected or ignored by the
intended for the EU received licences cleared CA if containing errors
being redirected to a *Estimate (based on number of licences received) for the UK that aggregated -Licences not being
non-EU country customs data presented to customs
-Licences not being (e.g. goods arriving via post/air courier)
presented to the CA (e.g. goods arriving via - Licences issued to private individuals who are not
post/air courier) placing goods on EU market (use of Y057 certificate)
-Licences issued to private individuals not placing -Customs not updating the relevant tracking system
goods on EU market so not requiring a licence when clearing shipments: 50 licences in Belgium
-Licences not being submitted in the relevant -Aggregated, or other issues with formatting of, customs
tracking system data (France and United Kingdom)
-Information on the application of the FLEGT -Goods travelling via a non-VPA third country, losing
Regulation not being submitted for 2019 (Latvia) FLEGT status (use of Y057 certificate)
-Missing/erroneous licence numbers in the -Validated licences not being used/rejected by customs
datasets submitted by Member States -Trade originally intended for the EU being redirected to a
-Licences issued and received but goods non-EU country after licence was already received
reclassified to non-FLEGT HS codes by customs -Reclassification of goods to non-FLEGT HS codes
-Goods being disposed of/not cleared by customs

9000
8048 7995*
8000

7000
5790
6000 5460 5372

5000

4000 3169 3362

3256
3088
3000
1884
1857
2000 1716
733 721
196 267 542 445 543508
1000 265255 195
129 355 208208 599
415
130126 208 197
129 254 90 83
70 69 35 35 46 48 13 18 19 19 2 1 13 12 0**
0

Number of FLEGT licences received by CA Number of FLEGT licences cleared by customs

Figure 1: Number of FLEGT licences received by the CA for validation and cleared by customs in 2019, for
those 26 Member States that reported receiving FLEGT licences. (Romania reported not receiving or clearing FLEGT
licences and Latvia did not submit information on the application of the FLEGT Regulation in 2019). *The Netherlands’ customs data for
monthly declarants was not associated with FLEGT licence numbers. **The United Kingdom did not associate customs data with FLEGT
licences numbers. See here for further details of the national datasets and associated caveats. The top graphic also includes the number of
FLEGT licences issued by Indonesia for 2019 (37 720 licenses) (preliminary data, LIU in litt. to EFI, June 2020).
 3

Quantities of timber products imported into the Member States under the FLEGT licensing scheme
Over 683 621 tonnes of timber products were Over 623 542 Acacia mangium, Tectona grandis, and species of the
reported on validated FLEGT licences in 2019 by 26 tonnes of products genus Shorea were the three most highly traded taxa by
Member States. Close to half (49.5%) of licensed were reported as weight on single-taxon shipments (taxonomic information
products consisted of paper and paper products cleared by customs. was provided for 85.2% of timber on validated FLEGT
(HS48). licences).
200
Millions

4802.57
4802.56
180 4802.55

4802.57
160
4802.56
140 4802.55

120
Net weight (kg)

100
4412.99 4802
4412.99 4412.94
80 4418.99 4418.99 9403.90 9403.90
4412.94 4412.39 4803.00 4803.00
4412.39 4412.34 4418.75 4418.79 4802
4409.29 4412.34 4418.75
60 4409.29 4412.31 4418.20 4418.20
4810.29
4810.19
40 4412.31 9403.60 9403.60
4409.22 4803
4409.22 4418 4418 4803
4810
20 4412 4810.29 9401.69 9401.69
4810.19 9403.50 9403.50
4421.99 4421.99 4804.39 4804.39 4810.13
4409 4409 4412 4804 4804 4810 9401.61 9401.61 9403.30 9403.30
0 9403 9403
Licences Customs Licences Customs Licences Customs Licences Customs Licences Customs Licences Customs Licences Customs Licences Customs Licences Customs Licences Customs
440 9 - 441 2 - Pl ywood , 441 8 - Bu ilder's 442 1 - Othe r 480 2 - Writing 480 3 - Toile t 480 4 - Uncoated 481 0 - Coated 940 1 - Wood en 940 3 - Wood en
Continuo usl y venee red pane ls join ery an d articles o f wo od pap er pap er pap er pap er seats furniture
shape d woo d and la min ate d carpen try
boa rd

Figure 2: Quantities of the main FLEGT-licensed product types reported by HS code* on validated FLEGT licences and as cleared by customs into the EU in 2019, reported
by weight (kg)**. Latvia did not submit information on the application of the FLEGT Regulation in 2019. Greece did not provide HS codes in their customs data. *Within these top ten categories, only HS codes
with quantities greater than 0.5million kg are shown. Where possible, HS codes were reconciled to 6 digits; quantities shown for 4-digit HS codes only include trade reported at the 4-digit level. **Quantity was reported
by weight on >99% of validated FLEGT licences and 99% of customs data, but may not be representative of all trade. Due to the potential discrepancies highlighted in Figure 1, quantities reported by weight on FLEGT
licences and by customs are not fully comparable. Information relating to the varying completeness and quality of the national datasets, a full breakdown of quantities imported by HS code including a key to principa l
HS codes, as well as a breakdown of the top 6 HS codes by importing Member State, is available here.
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Number of cases and quantities of timber products involved where

Article 6(1)* has been applied
*Article 6(1): If Competent Authorities establish that the requirement laid down in Article 4(1) is not
fulfilled, they shall act in accordance with national legislation in force. [Article 4(1): Imports into the
Community of timber products exported from partner countries shall be prohibited unless the
shipment is covered by a FLEGT licence.]

676 FLEGT licences were subject to 86 physical 56 FLEGT licences were

checks in 2019 that go beyond basic inspections of rejected by 12 Member
verification of the licence (including, FLEGT- licensed States. Article 6(1) was
e.g. contacting the License shipments were applied by Austria (2 licences,
Information Unit (LIU) for further conducted by 14 48.04 kg) and Spain (5
clarification) by 19 Member States. Member States. licences, 18 349.66 kg).

Article 6(2) (i.e. notification of the Commission of any information Seven validated
suggesting that the provisions of this Regulation are being, or FLEGT licences
have been, circumvented) was applied by Austria were reported as
(courier/express service overlooked obligation to present FLEGT having been
licence before customs clearance as no customs declaration disposed by
needed on low value goods), Bulgaria (received falsified customs by
documents, including bill of lading, delivery orders, statement Germany,
letter from licensing authority, FLEGT licences) and the corresponding to
Netherlands (written warning issued for misreporting of product 31 710 kg of
species). products.
20 16
15 12
10 8
5
5 2 3 2 3 2
1 1 1
0

Figure 3: Number of FLEGT licences rejected in 2019, by Member State (darker shading indicates that Article
6(1) was applied).
100 93
80 69
60
33
40
11 13 13 7
20 1 1 2 5 2 1 2
0

Figure 4: Instances of FLEGT licences cleared by customs before validation of the licence by the CA (Art 11(2)
of Implementing Regulation (EC) No 1024/2008) in 2019, by Member State. Due to the format of the data submitted
by France, Ireland and the UK, it was not possible to calculate the time between FLEGT licence validation by the CA and clearance by
customs for those countries.