Jakarta. The European Union was not targeting one specific country or product when it adopted its deforestation-free regulation, according to the bloc’s member state Poland.

“It is not like the EU is targeting one product or one country. That is a more general policy,” Polish deputy foreign minister Wojciech Gerwel told Indonesian reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday evening.

“With efforts on all sides, we can reach a satisfactory solution. Indonesia and the EU have also had a joint group meeting some time ago,” Gerwel said.

Over the past two days, Gerwel has been on a visit to Indonesia for talks with the Foreign Affairs Ministry, among others. The Polish diplomat also met with the House of Representatives. 

“Almost all my interlocutors here in Indonesia raised this issue [of EU’s deforestation law]. This shows the significance of the issue, although I was already aware of it,” Gerwel said.

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) aims to guarantee that products the bloc's citizens consume are not associated with deforestation. 

The EUDR allows companies to sell products in the EU only if their suppliers prove that their products do not come from deforested land after the cut-off date of Dec. 31, 2020. The mandatory due diligence rules affect palm oil, cattle, soy, coffee, cocoa, timber and rubber. Derivatives of the said commodities are also subject to the EUDR. 

The deforestation-free regulation has greatly worried Indonesia, a major palm oil exporter. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo earlier expressed Indonesia’s concerns over the EUDR when meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of the G7 Hiroshima Summit.

“The benchmarking process with a cut-off date of [Dec. 31,] 2020 must be completely transparent and objective. In 2019-2020, Indonesia’s deforestation rate had dropped by 75 percent to 115,000 hectares. This is a historic low since 1990, and we believe [the deforestation rate] will continue to decline,” Jokowi told Von der Leyen, as quoted by the Presidential Secretariat.

Read More: Palm Oil Exporter Indonesia Concerned by EU’s Deforestation Law

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