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Private sector to challenge EU biofuel ban
In addition to filing a separate legal suit, palm oil producers and separate parties would provide funds for the government to oppose the EU’s move.
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Harvest time: A worker gathers oil palm fruit bunches at a plantation in Lampung. (The Jakarta Post/R. Berto Wedhatama)
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alm oil producers support the government’s efforts to challenge the European Union’s latest decision to completely phase out the consumption of palm oil, which the EU has classed as a high-risk vegetable oil, by 2030.
In addition to filing a separate legal suit, palm oil producers and separate parties would provide funds for the government to oppose the EU’s move.
The European Commission adopted on March 13 the Delegated Regulation Supplementing Directive 2018/2001, dubbed the Delegated Act, on sustainability criteria for biofuel, a derivative of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II).
Under the regulation, palm oil is the only commodity singled out for having a high risk of causing deforestation based on indirect land use change (ILUC) risks, which are calculated on the basis of agricultural land previously destined for food but converted to biofuel production.
A high-ranking Trade Ministry official said in Jakarta on Thursday that local palm oil businesses are preparing to file a lawsuit against the Delegated Act with the European Court of Justice (ECJ), at the same time as the government is selecting a law firm to back its legal suit with the EU at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“We do not have a certain deadline for bringing the dispute to the WTO because our palm oil trade [to the EU] had not been halted in the past couple of years, so we still have time,” the ministry’s director general for foreign trade, Oke Nurwan, told reporters on Thursday.
“What matters the most right now is not about [potential financial] losses, but rather about overturning the negative impression of palm oil and its products.”
