Decision No 1/2016 of the Joint Implementation Committee set up by the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the European Union, of the one part, and the Republic of Indonesia, of the other part

of 15 September 2016

concerning the start date of the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) licensing scheme [2016/1797]

THE JOINT IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE,

Having regard to the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Indonesia (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Agreement’), which following ratification by the Parties entered into force on 1 May 2014,

Whereas:

(1) The Agreement provides in Article 14, paragraph 5(e) that the Joint Implementation Committee shall agree on the date from which the FLEGT licensing scheme will start operating after an evaluation of the functioning of the Indonesian Timber Legality Assurance system (TLAS) on the basis of the criteria set out in Annex VIII.

(2) A joint independent assessment of the Indonesian TLAS has concluded that the Indonesian TLAS is a robust system and that the system meets the criteria to assess its operationality established in Annex VIII to the Agreement.

(3) The two Parties have completed their respective internal procedures and have notified each other through the JIC of their readiness to start the FLEGT Licensing system.

(4) The JIC will continue to monitor the implementation of the Agreement and the Parties have identified joint actions to be prioritized in the course of 2017 in order to ensure an effective implementation of the Agreement.

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

The FLEGT licensing scheme shall start on 15 November 2016.

Article 2

This Decision shall be drawn up in duplicate in the Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish and Indonesian languages, each of these texts being authentic. In case of divergence of interpretation the English text shall prevail.

Article 3

This Decision shall enter into force on 15 November 2016.

Done in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 15 September 2016.

For the Republic of Indonesia

IB Putera PARTHAMA, PhD.

Director-General of Sustainable Forest Management, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia

For the European Union

Charles-Michel GEURTS

Deputy Head of Mission

EU Delegation to Indonesia and Brunei