MALAYSIAN LAWMAKERS TO VISIT EUROPE TO COUNTER PROPOSAL TO LIMIT USE OF PALM-BASED BIOFUEL

Six Malaysian lawmakers will visit Europe next month to counter the European Union’s  (EU) proposed resolution to curb the use of oil palm-based biofuel by 2020, the Bernama news agency reported this week.  Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Mah Siew Keong said the September visit would come just after summer (in Europe) in order to leverage on the most number of EU lawmakers and officials. 

“The purpose of our six MPs’ visit to Europe is to engage with them, answer their questions and clear their doubts and to provide them with the full facts and figures on the oil palm industry,” he told a press conference after attending a luncheon organised by the EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  A resolution by the European Parliament recently called for the EU to phase out the use of palm oil-based biodiesel by 2020.