(1)

On 21 May 2003, the Commission adopted a Communication to the Council and the European Parliament ‘Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT): proposal for an EU action plan’. The Action Plan set out in that communication (‘the FLEGT Action Plan’) called for measures to address illegal logging by developing voluntary partnership agreements with timber-producing countries. Council conclusions on the action plan were adopted in October 2003 (1) and a European Parliament resolution on the subject was adopted on 11 July 2005 (2).

(2)

On 5 December 2005, the Council authorised the Commission to open negotiations with timber-producing countries on partnership agreements to implement the FLEGT Action Plan.

(3)

On 20 December 2005, the Council adopted Regulation (EC) No 2173/2005 (3) which established a FLEGT licensing scheme for imports of timber into the Union from countries with which the Union has concluded voluntary partnership agreements.

(4)

The negotiations with the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire in view of the conclusion of a Voluntary Partnership Agreement on forest law enforcement, governance and trade in timber and timber products (‘the Agreement’), were successfully concluded by the initialling of the Agreement on 17 October 2022.

(5)

The Agreement should be signed,