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Above left: The EUDR aims to curb the EU’s ‘imported deforestation’ Centre: Jessika Roswall is European Commissioner for the Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy Above right: Christine Schneider MEP
the core reason for the proposed EUDR delay, she said the European Commission (EC) would discuss other facets of the Regulation with their EU co-legislators.
“The other thing that we also have been working on for a long time is the simplification of different angles and aspects [of the EUDR] and I will also discuss this with the ministers and with the European Parliament,” she said.
EU politicians were divided on the delay proposal.
MEP Christine Schneider, the lead negotiator of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) Group in the European Parliament welcomed it on the basis it would provide the opportunity to further fine tune the EUDR and make it manageable for business. “A key step in a necessary revision of the deforestation regulation is the introduction of a zero-risk category,” she added. “Regions and products that pose no risk of deforestation must be treated in an unbureaucratic manner and without additional documentation requirements. Only in this way can the regulation have a targeted effect without burdening those who can demonstrate that they operate in a sustainable and responsible manner.” However, the liberal Socialists & Democrats Group, said a postponement would be “unacceptable” and would potentially “undermine the EU’s climate and environmental commitments”.
“Delaying implementation again would be a setback for European environmental policy and for fair competition for sustainable businesses,” said Delara Burkhardt, the S&D Group’s lead negotiator on the EUDR. “Just ahead of the UN climate conference in Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon, the EU is sending the wrong signal.”
While not in the EU, the UK will of course be affected by the EUDR given it exports
wood products into and imports timber from it, all of which will have to be compliant. Moreover, Northern Ireland, of course, remains in the EU single market so will apply the regulation.
One UK-based international trader told the
TTJ they would be disappointed if it was not brought in this year. “We have worked hard to be ready for the EUDR and feel it would benefit our trade and give us a unique selling point, providing customers with that added assurance of sustainability,” said a spokesperson. “Our suppliers have really focused on preparation too, and they’ve spent a lot of money, on audits, recruiting personnel specially and investing in software systems to manage the data required.”
NGOs also came out vociferously against a further delay to EUDR implementation, with 225 of them from 42 countries signing up to a statement titled ‘Hands off the EUDR’. Amid all the debate and commentary, the EC went back to the drawing board and on October 21 came up with its latest proposition, which it clearly hopes will be an acceptable compromise to all parties. “With today’s proposal, the Commission wants to make sure that the [Traces] IT system is fully operational to address the EU’s contribution to the global challenge of deforestation,” it stated. “At the same time, the proposal will simplify reporting obligations, notably for micro and small primary operators from low-risk countries worldwide, while maintaining a robust tracking mechanism.”
Under the new proposal, the EUDR implementation date of December 30, 2025, is back on for large and medium companies first placing the commodities covered on the EU market and exporting them from it. However, they will have a six-month grace period before checks and enforcement come in. Small and micro businesses will have until
December 30, 2026, before the regulation comes in for them.
At the same time, obligations are simplified for:
• Operators and traders down the value chain that commercialise in scope commodities
• Micro and small primary operators from low-risk countries – which the EC says
covers close to 100% of farmers and foresters in the EU
What this means is that only the importer placing goods on the EU market will have to make a due diligence submission to the IT system. This will cover the entire supply chain with downstream operators and traders, from manufacturers to retailers no longer obliged to make submissions.
It’s proposed that micro and small primary operators would only submit a simple, one-off declaration in the EUDR IT system. When information is already available, for instance in an EU Member State database, operators do not have to upload into the IT System themselves, replacing the previous need for regular submissions of due diligence statements.
“The new entry into application dates, combined with the simplification of obligations for supply chain actors aims to ensure that the [Traces] IT system can sustain the level of expected loads,” said the EC statement.
But that’s not quite the end of the
story. Now the latest EC proposal has to be approved by the European Parliament and Council. So, watch out for the next instalment. ■
See:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/ presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_2464
https://www.clientearth.org/media/h4diqpa2/ cso-statement_eudr_delay_october-2024.pdf
www.ttjonline.com | November/December 2025 | TTJ
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