European Parliament votes though year-long delay to EUDR laws
After an extended period of political debate and wrangling, the European Parliament has voted decisively in favour of adopting a year-long delay to EUDR environmental laws, writes Neill Barston.
Under the agreement between the parliament and council, which was passed with 546 votes in favour to 97 and 7 abstentions, large businesses operating in industries including cocoa, soy and palm oils will now have until December 2025 to comply with the regulations.
Initially, the much-hyped frameworks designed to make companies responsible for their supply chains by proving they are 100% deforestation free, had been due to come into force at the end of this month.
But a total of 20 EU nations and commodities traders were reportedly pushing back against the timetable, despite its original agreement more than 18 months ago, claiming they were not prepared for the scheme’s start. There had also reportedly been considerable industrial lobbying on the issue to put back its timetable.
Furthermore, the dominant political group in the parliament had sought to further weaken its introduction in seeking effective opt outs for countries in a new ‘zero risk’ category for the scheme – which environmental campaigners observed would seriously undermine the introduction of the major legislation.
Instead, the EU Commission said it had promised a review in 3 years time of the scheme, and pledged to publish obligations of the regulations by 30 June 2026 for small and medium-sized enterprises. This in effect leaves open the potential for further political moves to exempt countries from responsibilities under its frameworks.
Environmental groups including Mighty Earth, and manufacturers such as Tony’s Chocolonely had criticised the year-long delay as being damaging to the world’s forests, insisting that it should have gone ahead as originally envisaged to avert further depletion of already badly-eroded forested areas.
As the parliament noted, large operators and traders will now have to respect the obligations of this regulation as of 30 December 2025, and micro- and small enterprises from 30 June 2026. This additional time is intended to help companies around the world implement the rules more smoothly from the date of application, without undermining the objectives of the law.
The Commission proposed postponing the application date of the deforestation regulation by one year in response to concerns raised by EU member states, non-EU countries, traders and operators that they would not be able to fully comply with the rules if applied from the end of 2024.
Significantly, there had been considerable criticism of the European People’s Party in seeking a series of late amendments to the legislation – which were largely rejected by the EU Commission and Parliament in a protracted series of debates this past month.
A final endorsement of the agreement is required by the EU Council, to be published within the next ten days, but this is not anticipated to present any further issues.
Following the vote, Christine Schneider (EPP, DE) commented: “Parliament will closely monitor the process to reduce bureaucracy and ensure that the Commission’s words are followed by actions. Our goal remains clear: stakeholders and consumers must not be negatively impacted by the implementation of this regulation.”
