EU proposes delay to anti-deforestation regulation

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was set to come into force 30 December 2024 for large companies and 30 June 2025 for smaller enterprises.

Before the delay is enacted, the proposal requires the approval of the European Parliament and European Council.

A spokesperson for the Commission said the decision was taken in response to feedback from “international partners about their state of preparations”.​

Alongside the delay, the Commission also committed to provide additional guidance documents and a “stronger international cooperation framework”​ to support stakeholders, member states and non-EU countries.

The decision has been met with mixed reactions. While environmental groups and NGOs criticised the move for slowing the fight against climate change, it received support from several governments and industry bodies.

“The EUDR imposes complex due diligence requirements that create technical barriers for a range of Australian agricultural products,”​ said Australian agriculture minister Julie Collins.

“It is welcome news that the European Commission has responded to these concerns, and the important advocacy of Australia’s agriculture industry, with the announcement of the proposed 12-month delay.”​

Meanwhile, Indonesian minister Airlangga Hartarto told Reuters: “It's not about the delay but implementing the regulations. The EU has no right to be a rating agency.”​

Within the EU, Czechia was quick to express it approval for the delay – agriculture minister Marek Výborný told Euractiv that he had been campaigning against the regulation for a “long time”​ and said it would put businesses in “in a precarious situation”.​

Europe’s largest farm lobby COPA-COGECA commented: “The focus must now shift to addressing the practical challenges associated with the EUDR’s implementation to prevent uncertainties and avoid supply chain disruptions.”​

Secretary general of Germany’s biggest farmer group, Bernhard Krüsken, gave a similar assessment: “The uncertainties caused must now be a reason to fundamentally simplify the regulation again and not to impose additional bureaucracy on countries with effective forest protection.”​

However, opposition to the decision was just as widespread. Shortly after the announcement, deputy director at London-based NGO Earthsight, Rubens Carvalho, said: “EU policymakers have to stand firm and make sure the EU Deforestation Regulation is fully enforced from the end of this year. They must vote against delaying the implementation of the law."​

“Ursula von der Leyen might as well have wielded the chainsaw herself,”​ added Greenpeace EU forest policy director Sébastien Risso.

”People in Europe don’t want deforestation products on their supermarket shelves but that’s what this delay will give them, for another twelve months. The EUDR was agreed in December 2022, and it’s inexcusable that the Commission took so long to issue the supporting documents for the implementation of the law. The world’s forests urgently need the protection that this law offers.”​

Mighty Earth senior policy director Julian Oram compared delaying EUDR to throwing a fire extinguisher out the window of a burning building.

“It’s an act of Nature vandalism that will serve only to drive more industrial destruction of tropical forests, threatening the people and wildlife who depend on them, while pushing climate and nature goals out of reach,” ​Oram said.

In other news, Kellanova has announced plans to invest £75m into its cereal production facility in Wrexham.​​