According to foreign media reports, the Committee on Internal Market and International Trade of the European Parliament recently approved and revised the draft anti-forced labor regulations formulated by the European Commission. The proposal covers all products and is not company-specific or industry-specific. Members of
Parliament approved the draft regulation and made changes. For example, the revised version now requires companies operating in high-risk areas (rather than public authorities) to certify that they do not use forced labour. "The draft regulation will establish a framework to investigate the use of forced labour in companies' supply chains,"
the European Parliament said. "If it is established that a company uses forced labour, all imports and exports of the goods in question will be stopped at the EU border, and companies will also have to withdraw goods that have already entered the EU market."
It also said banned products could re-enter the EU market if the producers concerned could prove they had stopped using forced labour in their operations or supply chains. The Committee has also harmonized the definition of forced labour with international labour standards. The
European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) recently urged the European Union to pass legislation against forced labour in the photovoltaic industry and welcomed the vote. However, it expressed concern that the implementation of the legislation would take a long time.
Earlier, the European solar industry wrote to recommend that the European Commission urgently acquire the stocks of European solar manufacturers and speed up the formulation of regulatory plans to ban forced labor products. In the letter, it pointed out that a large number of cheap imports had pushed some European manufacturers to the brink of bankruptcy and hindered EU efforts to promote indigenous green manufacturing.
According to Rystad Energy, a Norwegian consultancy, the total capacity of photovoltaic modules in Europe reached about 80 GW at the end of August.