KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 — The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) will engage with the relevant stakeholders including policy-makers and non-governmental organisations in the European Union (EU) relating to EU legislation that will have negative implications on the palm oil industry including its impact on smallholders.
It also intends to engage individual EU member states to get national mandatory certification schemes like the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) and Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) recognised, it said in a statement after the 24th Senior Officials Meeting (SOM).
The hybrid meeting was conducted at the Royal Ambarrukmo in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
On Nov 17, 2021, the EU published a legislative proposal to regulate deforestation-free products.
Following that, the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) urged the EU Parliament to acknowledge national certification programmes like the MSPO standards as an effective measure to meet regulation requirements.
“In view of the latest development, SOM leaders affirmed the need to refocus the roles of CPOPC.
“The five focused areas are promotion and advocacy; consultation and collaboration; research and development (R&D) and training; smallholders; and sustainability,” it said.
Thus, CPOPC will be a platform geared towards integrating, facilitating, and bridging the global palm oil stakeholders on issues of common concern. CPOPC can be a platform for global palm oil campaigns and engagements beyond national or bilateral settings, it said.
“The CPOPC also set an important milestone in strengthening the organisational framework following the completed ratification of the protocol to amend the CPOPC Charter by member countries, which allows the amendment to come into force,” it said.
A total of 46 clauses covering 15 articles were amended. The initiative to amend the Charter of Establishment of CPOPC took into account the need to form a solid basis for future direction of the council, especially in making CPOPC visible, relevant and effective.
The meeting agreed to hold the forthcoming 25th SOM back-to-back with the 11th Ministerial Meeting of CPOPC in Malaysia, who chairs the CPOPC from Jan 1, 2023 for one calendar year.
