EU Lawmakers Reject Move to Ease Law Banning Deforestation-Linked Products

Lawmakers in the European Parliament and Council announced that they have reached a provisional agreement to a 12 month delay in the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), a new law aimed at ensuring that products imported to or exported from EU markets no longer contribute to deforestation and forest degradation globally.

While the new agreement will delay the implementation of the law, it also rejected Parliament’s proposal to ease the new rules through the creation of a “no risk” category which would exempt countries assessed as posing little deforestation risk from most of the EUDR requirements.

Following the agreement, Parliament’s rapporteur Christine Schneider, whose European People’s Party (EPP) had proposed the ‘no risk’ amendment said:

“We would have preferred to see several issues directly enshrined in the law, but the Council refused.”

The EUDR was initially introduced by the EU Commission in November 2021, with proposals aimed at effectively banning deforestation-linked projects on the EU market, and establishing strong compliance requirements for companies providing or utilizing key commodities and products such as palm oil, beef, timber, coffee, cocoa, rubber and soy, in addition to some of their derived products, such as leather, chocolate, tires, or furniture.

Under the new rules, companies that want to place relevant products on the EU market, or export them, will face mandatory due diligence rules, including a requirement to trace the products back to the plot of land where it was produced, to prove that the products were produced on land that was not subject to deforestation after 2020, and are compliant with all relevant applicable laws in force in the country of production.

The regulation entered into effect in June 2023, giving companies 18 months to implement the rules, which would become applicable at the end of December 2024 for large companies, and June 2025 for micro- and small enterprises.

In October, however, the Commission proposed a one-year delay to the new rules, noting that “several global partners have repeatedly expressed concerns about their state of preparedness,” and adding that even within the EU, “the state of preparations amongst stakeholders in Europe is also uneven.” The new agreement would see the rules becoming applicable for large companies in December 2025, and for micro- and small enterprises in June 2026.

The Commission welcomed the provisional agreement, which still needs to be officially endorsed by the Parliament and Council and then formally adopted by each, describing the delay in implementation as “a balanced solution to support operators around the world in securing a smooth implementation from the start,” adding that it will “ensure proper and effective implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), while preserving its integrity.”

Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, said:

“With the agreement just reached between the European Parliament and the Council, a 12-month additional time is given to all businesses, farmers and a variety of international stakeholders that need to implement the EU Deforestation Regulation. The Commission has listened to their feedback and I am glad that our balanced proposal has been accepted, giving additional certainty and predictability to businesses.”

The EPP’s addition of the “no risk” category was part of a series of proposed amendments by the party aimed at reducing the bureaucratic burden of the new law. The EPP had also proposed to extend the implementation delay to two years, and to exempt traders from the regulation, such that only companies placing products on the market would be responsible for proving the products’ deforestation-free status. These latter proposals did not make it into Parliament’s negotiating position.

In its statement following the agreement, the European Council said:

“According to the provisional agreement, the targeted amendment will not affect the substance of the existing rules, which aims to minimise the EU’s contribution to deforestation and forest degradation worldwide, by only allowing deforestation-free products to be placed on the EU market or exported from the EU.”