The European Parliament has voted to delay the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by one year.
Originally due to take effect on 30 December this year, the law will ban the sale in the EU of seven commodities linked to deforestation – palm oil, soyabean, timber, rubber, coffee, cocoa and cattle.
Following the vote on 14 November, the law is now expected to come into force on 30 December 2025 for large companies and 30 June 2026 for micro and small enterprises.
In a statement on its website on the day of the vote, the European Parliament said the additional time would help operators around the world to implement the rules smoothly from the start without undermining the objectives of the law.
The delay followed lobbying by companies and governments around the world.
In its decision to delay the legislation, the European Parliament also adopted other amendments proposed by lobbying groups, including the creation of a new category of countries posing “no risk” on deforestation in addition to the existing three categories of “low”, “standard” and “high” risk.
Countries classified as “no risk”, defined as countries with stable or increasing forest area development, would face significantly less stringent requirements as there is a negligible or non-existent risk of deforestation. The European Commission (EC) will finalise a country benchmarking system by 30 June 2025.
Following the vote, the regulation was referred to the ENVI Committee for technical adjustments and a new vote was expected at the plenary session the week of 25-28 November or, if not possible, at the 16-18 December session.
Before coming into force, the agreed text must be approved by both the EC and the European Parliament and published in the EU Official Journal.
When first proposed by the EC in October, the delay had been welcomed by leading trade organisations including the Indonesian palm oil association GAPKI and the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, who said it would give the industry more time to prepare, The Star wrote at the time.
However, a former top environment official was quoted as saying in an article by The Guardian on 3 October that the proposed delay of the deforestation law was “a step backward in the fight against climate change”.
According to Virginijus Sinkevičius, a Lithuanian MEP who was the environment commissioner until mid-July and who drafted the legislation that was agreed in 2023, the 12-month delay would put 32,000ha of forest at risk each day, fuel 15% of global carbon emissions, break trust with the EU’s global partners and damage its credibility on its climate commitments.
According to UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates, 420M ha of forest – an area larger than the EU – were lost to deforestation from 1990-2020.
EU consumption represents around 10% of global deforestation, with palm oil and soyabeans accounting for more than two-thirds of the total.
