EU Reaches Agreement on Deforestation Regulation Delay; Substance of Law Remains Unchanged

On December 3, the EU Council and Parliament reached a provisional agreement to delay the EU Deforestation Regulation by 12 months, pushing the enforcement date to December 30th 2025. 

The provisional agreement must still be voted on during the next Parliamentary Plenary Session taking place from December 16-19 and also be accepted by the EU Council, whose last meeting is on December 20. 

According to the provisional agreement, the targeted amendment will not affect the substance of the existing EUDR requirements, which aims to minimise the EU’s contribution to deforestation and forest degradation worldwide by preventing products contributing to deforestation after December 2020 to be placed on or exported from the EU market.

Notably, the amendment to add a ‘no-risk’ country benchmark or risk classification to the EUDR was not included in the provisional agreement. However, in its place the Commission agreed to add two provisions to the regulation: 

• The Commission committed to conducting a future assessment of simplified requirements for countries that have demonstrated effective and sustainable forest management practices.

• An “emergency break”, which will allow further postponement of the Regulation should the Deforestation Registry (IS System) not be operational by December 30 2025 or if the Country Benchmark (country risk classifications) is not published 6 months before the regulations enforcement.

To learn more about how Sourcemap can help your company comply with the EU Deforestation Regulation, or to speak with our in-house policy and GIS experts, reach out to our team.