The European Commission (EC) has taken steps to simplify the introduction of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
In a statement on its official website on 15 April, the EC said it had published new guidance documents for member states, operators and traders in advance of the regulation’s introduction at the end of 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.
The EC said it had introduced the clarifications and simplifications in response to feedback from its international partners.
“Our aim is to reduce administrative burden for companies while preserving the goals of the regulation,” Jessika Roswall, commissioner for environment, water resilience and a competitive circular economy, said.
“We will continue to work very closely with all stakeholders, to ensure that our rules deliver on reducing global deforestation and forest degradation in the least burdensome way for companies.”
Key simplification measures include:
• Large companies can reuse existing due diligence statements (DDSs) when goods, previously on the EU market, are reimported.
• An authorised representative can now submit a DDS on behalf of members of company groups.
• Companies will be allowed to submit DDGs annually instead of for every shipment or batch placed on the EU market.
• To prove they have ‘ascertained’ that due diligence has been carried out, large companies downstream can benefit from simplified obligations - collecting DDS reference numbers from their suppliers and using those references for their own DDS submissions now applies.
The EC said it expected the updated measures would significantly reduce the number of DDGs that companies needed to file.
On the same day as announcing the revisions to the EUDR, the EC published a Delegated Act to provide further clarifications and simplification on the scope of the EUDR, addressing stakeholders’ request for guidance on specific categories of products.
This would also avoid unnecessary administrative costs for economic operators and authorities, the EC said.
In addition, the EC said it was finalising the country benchmarking system through an Implementing Act, to be adopted no later than 30 June 2025 following discussions with member states.
Taken together, the measures will lead to a currently estimated 30% reduction of administrative costs and burden for companies, according to the EC.
