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The European Council has agreed to back the Commission’s proposal to postpone implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by one year.
“This postponement will allow third countries, member states, operators and traders to be fully prepared in their due diligence obligations, which is to ensure that certain commodities and products sold in the EU or exported from the EU are deforestation-free,” the European Council said in a statement.
The Council will now inform the European Parliament, which is expected to vote on the Commission’s proposal in a plenary session on November 13-14. After the Parliament vote, the Council will also have to vote on the formal adoption of the regulation, but this is considered a formality. “The aim is to have the regulation formally adopted by both co-legislators and published in the Official Journal of the EU so that it can enter into force by the end of the year,” the Council said.
The coordinators of the political groups in the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) committee of the European Parliament decided on October 14 to use the urgency procedure without a committee stage, according to article 170 of the European Parliament internal regulation, to speed up the approval process.
During the ENVI committee on October 14, members of parliament (MEPs) from the European People’s Party (EPP), the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and Renew Europe clearly expressed their intention to vote in favor of the proposal to postpone the implementation date of the EUDR. The three parties together account for 401 seats out of the total 720 seats of the European Parliament.
“A one-year delay is necessary I guess, but we need a clear commitment from the Commission that this year will be used for a proper implementation and for a real dialogue with partner countries to establish common strategies to reduce the logging of forests […] and to overcome this damage we had in the last year” Bernd Lange from the S&D group said during the committee.
A similar position is shared by Renew Europe, which accuses Commission President Ursula von der Leyen directly of not releasing the guidelines earlier, thus making a delay necessary. “The technical work by the Commission was done and then it remained for weeks or months on the desk of Ursula Von Der Leyen, therefore companies did not receive the technical details allowing them to get ready, and now everyone is saying well, that’s too late. And that is a political choice,” Pascal Canfin from Renew Europe said. He added: “The Renew group will be acting responsibly, that is to say, we will support the delay by a year, but no more than that, and we will not be open to other amendments because otherwise the text will not be applied.”
The Left group also blamed the Commission for the delay and said it might also vote in favor of the proposal, although it could also ask for improvements to the text. “Can you commit to no more than one year of delay for the implementation of this regulation? […] Are you prepared to commit not to weakening the content and the aims of this regulation?” Jonas Sjöstedt from The Left asked a Commission representative during the committee meeting. “We believe that we need to use this opportunity to improve the content of the regulation.”
The Greens also criticized the Commission and asked for assurances that there would be no further delay after the proposed twelve-month postponement. “We must now ensure that the postponement does not open Pandora’s box and that the law is not weakened,” the Greens MEP Anna Cavazzini said in a statement.
On the right-wing side of the Parliament, all the biggest groups are asking for the delay to be approved, with some differences. “As things stand, there is a huge amount of uncertainty and the relevant points have been raised. […] From the global south we have had clear information that at the moment they are simply not in a position to implement this [regulation], so this is also a great threat to our trade and that means that, as regards to this extension, we would be ensuring that the law isn’t directly applicable,” Christine Schneider from the EPP group said during the committee meeting. “Now we need to adopt this extension very quickly. We will go through that procedure in the plenary and then have a vote in that November plenary because our business partners need that certainty.”
Beatrice Timgren from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group even called for the whole regulation to be reconsidered. “It’s good that the commission has finally recognized the issue with the regulation and delayed it, but why only a year? […] Let’s be clear, this regulation, as it stands, will not work. We all support protecting forests, but piling more bureaucracy on European businesses, especially the small ones, isn’t the answer. […] The whole regulation must be reevaluated,” she said. “This regulation poses huge risks to our industries and the bureaucracy will be enormous. […] We need to completely change or even delete this regulation completely,” Anja Arndt from the Europe of Sovereign Nations group echoed.
Interested in learning about the impact the EUDR will have on the market over the long term? Access Fastmarkets director, Europe packaging and graphic papers Alejandro Mata Lopez’s forecast examining the challenges the regulation will pose to the European pulp and paper industries here.