EU Commission unveils low risk nations for delayed EUDR environmental legislation

The European Commission has released a country benchmarking rating for its delayed EUDR deforestation legislation that had been due to begin at the end of last year, but will take effect from the start of 2026, writes Neill Barston.

Significantly, the bloc has declared that a minority of global nations as being in a high risk category, including Belarus, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the Russian Federation, which will be subject to additional review. 

As the EU noted, the benchmarking system classifies countries according to the level of risk of producing commodities covered by the scope of EUDR that are not deforestation-free – with the quartet of nations listed not considered to have met its thresholds for securing deforestation free status.

The vast majority of countries have fallen into low risk, and some within the standard risk category, which has prompted concern from some industry observers on whether any meaningful action can stem from such categorisation.

Notably, it has been reported that the ‘low risk category’ is determined as a nation having either a net forest loss between 2015-2020, or meeting an outer threshold of 70,000 hectares of loss a year.

Low risk categories
Critically, the EU has stated that sourcing from low-risk countries (which essentially makes up the bulk of European nations and many others), entails simplified due diligence obligations for operators and traders. This means that they need to collect information for due diligence purposes, but not assess and mitigate risks. The latter points were seen by many industry observers as being crucial to its implementation.

According to the EU, an assessment is due to be re-visited next year, with major concerns remaining regarding whether the legislation, along with its companion laws on due diligence that have also been pushed-back, will have any meaningful enforcement powers in the wake of alterations to their content following industrial and political lobbying that has been described by observers as a watering down of its intended purpose.

However, the collective legislation marks the first time that such legal frameworks are being introduced following decades of self-regulation of agricultural sectors that has drawn widespread concern that environmental management targets have successively failed to be met around the world.

Significantly, the topic of the delayed European legislation on deforestation will be among those discussed at our upcoming World Confectionery Conference as part of our Q&A session on sustainability within the industry, so ensure you don’t miss out on our event through ensuring you register early through the following direct link.

Furthermore, the Commission asserted that its methodology was “firmly rooted in a commitment to fairness, objectivity and transparency,”  with countries have been assessed on the basis of the quantitative criteria set out in Article 29(3) of the Deforestation Regulation.

According to the EU, the assessment is based on latest available data from the Global Forest Resources Assessment dataset by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO FRA).

Moreover, as the EU stated, the benchmarking will facilitate operators’ due diligence processes and enable competent authorities to effectively monitor and enforce compliance. Additionally, it will incentivise countries to improve the sustainability of their agricultural production systems and minimise their deforestation impact.

Notably, as the Commission concluded, its risk classification defines the extent of compliance checks that Member States’ competent authorities foresee among operators sourcing from different countries (1% for ‘low risk’, 3% for ‘standard risk’ and 9% for ‘high risk’).