19.07.2018 (malaysiandigest.com) - KUALA LUMPUR -- Despite continuous efforts to promote the palm oil industry, consultations with various stakeholders in the European Union (EU) and the strengthening of engagement with end-users, public opinion regarding palm oil in the EU is still negative due to concerns on climate change, environmental protection and biodiversity conservation.

French Ambassador to Malaysia, Frederic Laplanche, suggested that both Malaysia and the EU enhanced cooperation in seeking solutions to address the public concerns and sentiments, particularly on the deforestation issues in this region.

“We have got to face it together. My hope is that we can cooperate and not stay at the stage where we shout at and criticise each other without understanding.

“There are wide areas of possibilities where both parties must understand each other in order to improve the situation,” the envoy told Bernama in an exclusive interview recently.

Laplanche said France was aware of and understood the importance of palm oil to the Malaysian economy and had acted as an intermediary within the EU so it would not adopt a discriminatory policy on the commodity, especially in the interest of smallholders.

“At the same time, I am always very frank with my interlocutors in the government and when I am talking to the public. I think we must realise there’s a problem of the link between expansion of palm oil cultivation and deforestation,” he added.

He pointed out that although it was not for France to tell Malaysia what to do, the reality was public opinion in Europe had been oversensitive towards climate change, environmental issues and biodiversity protection.

 In January, the European Parliament voted in favour of a draft law on renewable energy that called for the use of palm oil in biofuels to be banned from 2021, a decision that could affect the millions of oil palm growers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

The EU reasoned that the widely-used commodity would derail Europe’s ambitions to green its transport sector if used as biodiesel.

The commodity is Malaysia’s top export to the EU, representing 49 per cent of the region’s imports.

However, Malaysia’s palm oil industry recently got a brief respite after the EU softened its stance on the use of palm oil among its member countries by omitting any mention of the commodity in the EU’s updated Renewable Energy Direc­tive.

The omission came after an agreement was reached during a "trilogue” involving the EU Parliament, European Council and European Commission on June 14.

According to an earlier proposal, a palm biofuel ban by 2021 was to be included in the directive.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, during his visit to Indonesia last month, said Malaysia and Indonesia – the world's two biggest producers of palm oil – had agreed to work together to counter the anti-palm oil campaign in Europe.