Oct 20, 2008. /Lesprom.com/. The European Union (EU) has adopted a new regulation aimed at reinforcing the fight against illegal timber felling and trading on the European market, official sources reported. According to an official statement given to the press Friday by the services of the European Commission, the new measures replaced the current system, based on the goodwill of the producing states to regulate timber trading through negotiated partnership with EU. By adopting, the new EU regulation seeks to give the bussinessmen directly the sense of responsibility by envisaging penalties for those who would not observe the required conditions introducing wood on the European market. The EU considers that one of the causes of deforestation in African countries is the illegal felling and trading in wood, which impoverishes the rural communities, depending on the forests, for their survival. According to European experts, the illegal felling of wood represents for the concerned African countries, the losses of revenue rising from $10 billion to $15 billion per annum. In order to limit the damage caused through this to the forest and the rural populations, EU adopted since 2005 "an action plan for the application of the forest regulations, governorship and commercial exchanges (FLEGT)". The FLEGT envisages the implementation of voluntary partnership agreement with the wood-producing countries, in order to prevent illegal wood entry into the European market. Moreover, the FLEGT intends to make efforts to reduce consumption within the EU, of illegal wood and to discourage the investments being able to promote the illegal forest exploitation in Africa. EU signed at the beginning of September an agreement with Ghana, for the durable exploitation of wood and it is in negotiations with Congo, DR Congo, Cameroon and Liberia for the same objective.