On Monday 11 October 2010, the European Council on Competitiveness (Internal Market, Industry, Research and Space) adopted the illegal logging regulation. This regulation had already been adopted by the European Parliament on 7 July 2010.
 
The new regulation provides that the placing on the internal market of illegally harvested timber or timber products derived from such timber should be prohibited. In addition, operators who place timber or timber products on the internal market for the first time should exercise due diligence through a system including three elements inherent to risk management: access to information, risk assessment and mitigation of the risk identified.
 
24 member states voted in favour of the regulation. Sweden was the only country to vote against. Sweden doubts whether the extra administrative burden, which the Regulation will involve for a large number of EU undertakings, is proportionate to the extent to which the Regulation will be able to globally limit illegal logging. They fear that the Regulation will have a disproportionately great impact on third countries and may therefore cause distortion of trade.
The Czech Republic and Portuguese delegations abstained from voting.
 
This Regulation will enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. It shall be applicable 27 months after this publication.