Answer given by Ms Simson on behalf of the European Commission
4.3.2024
The Commission was informed since March 2023 and over the last months of several fraud allegations concerning biofuel imports from China.
In addition, the Commission received a formal request by a competent authority of a Member State, pursuant to Article 30(10) of the recast Renewable Energy Directive (RED II)[1], to examine whether the sustainability and greenhouse gas savings criteria are met in relation to biofuel imports from China or whether fraud has taken place.
The Commission has been working on this examination in close cooperation with the Member State and the involved EU recognised voluntary scheme.
The aim is to investigate the alleged fraud, to determine whether there is a breach of the rules of RED II and to reach a relevant conclusion. The examination is currently ongoing.
To help Member States mitigate the risk of irregularities and fraud in the supply chain related to wrong labelling of fuels and increase transparency and help prevent possible fraud cases, the Commission set up a Union database that will trace the supply chains of feedstock and renewable fuels that are eventually consumed in the EU. The database is operational as of January 2024.
The Commission is committed to protecting the EU biodiesel industry from unfairly traded imports and there is currently an ongoing anti-dumping investigation on imports of biodiesel from China opened in December 2023[2].
This follows other measures already in place on imports from Argentina, the United States of America and Indonesia.