European People’s Party proposes two-year delay to EUDR deforestation laws
Ivory Coast Cocoa Farming, where levels of deforestation are continuing to prove a notable problem.
Proposals have been put forward by the European People’s Party (EPP) to delay the introduction of the much-anticipated EUDR regulations aimed at tackling supply chain deforestation, reports Neill Barston.
As noted by the Palm Oil Monitor group, the call to delay the new legislation – which will have far-reaching implications for market segments including cocoa, soy and other commodities including coffee, palm oil and wood.
Peter Leise, of the EPP, has reportedly called for ‘an urgent procedure’ targeting the revision of the EUDR timetable, pushing it back until 2027 to enable further guidance and strategy surrounding its delivery to be formulated.
However, as reported earlier this week, the EU Commission appeared in no mood to entertain the growing tide of voices – including from the US government, and cocoa and oil producing nations including Malaysia and Indonesia on this major international issue.
In a letter to the Confederation of European paper industries (CEPI), EU Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius noted that there had indeed been concerns about the EUDR, but that there had also been ‘encouraging signs’ that other sectors were now prepared for the roll-out of the landmark legislation.
Under the proposed law due to become fully active at the end of December, European companies will be legally bound to prove that they have no deforestation in their supply chains, as well as measures securing the respect of human rights of farmers within those trading relations.
While the scheme has been broadly welcomed as the first such major global initiative to place legal responsibilities on industry – there has been strong pushback over the timing of its implementation. As reported by Confectionery Production, the US government has called for its delay, along with a large percentage of cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast.
Earlier this year, a number of EU countries raised concerns over the timing of the system, and questioned whether agricultural communities would be left footing the bill for the scheme, or wether the satellite geomapping systems designed to create full traceability down to individual farm level were sufficiently accurate.
The latter point emerged as a key area for concern at the recent World Cocoa Conference, for which Confectionery Production was an official media partner. Sector representatives put forward the view that presently, satellite systems were significantly below 100% accuracy in overseeing forest mapping – which is at the heart of the project’s ambitions to deliver precise transparency.
Adding its own concern to the situation, Palm oil Monitor commented: “As both EU businesses and exporting companies have pointed out numerous times, they commence preparing their EU-bound shipments about three months in advance.
“So, a January shipment arriving when the EUDR is in effect, will be leaving within a matter of weeks. And the fact is that the EU has not made its compliance requirements remotely clear.
“Will this mean a delay? Brussels appears no closer to providing the guidance that it has been promising for months.
“In our view, the holdups are likely due to what DG ENVI (EU’s environmental department) wants, and what is achievable from the perspectives of DG TRADE and the customs agencies of various states. And this has always been the problem: DG ENVI simply assuming that environmental problems can be tackled with little consideration for the trade impacts.”