REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Indonesian government asked commitment of European Union (EU) to sign Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade, Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT-VPA) between Indonesia and the EU countries. The FLEGT-VPA aims to increase the value of Indonesian wood products. 

Small and micro business owners also have to pay to get Timber Legality Verification System (SVLK). However, the cooperation agreement is still not implemented until now. 

"The delay of signing by EU is harassing Indonesia. EU already delays it more than five times. In the last time, originally the signing was scheduled on July 5, 2013," Director of Processing and Marketing of Forest Products at Ministry of Forestry, Dwi Sudharto said on Monday.

Not only Indonesia, global community and environmental organizations also begin to question the delay made by EU as the attitude was contrary to EU's innitiative to eradicate illegal logging. FLEGT-VPA is designed to guarantee that they only deal with legal logging.

Among other reasons, the last delay was due to the complexity related to agreement's translation into 27 official languages of EU while the content of agreement had entered the final stage two years ago. 

Chairman of Wood and Carpentry Association (ISWA), Soewarni hopes Indonesian government to strengthen diplomacy with the EU. If the partnership had been implemented, business owners could take advantage of SVLK's paperwork.

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