It appears that that the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will enter into force at the end of this year, after all, albeit in a watered-down version, after the European Commission announced a change of direction.
The EUDR, originally due to come into force at the end of 2024 but already delayed for a year, will require importers of soya, plus other commodities, including palm oil, coffee, cocoa, beef and timber, to demonstrate that they have not been produced on deforested land to be sold in the EU.
In September, EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall told the European Parliament’s Environment Committee chair, Antonio Decaro, and the Danish Presidency, of her intention to delay the rules by a further year.
She highlighted concerns over the functioning of the IT platform needed to manage the vast data volumes required for managing compliance, which she warned could create ‘uncertainty for authorities and operational difficulties for stakeholders’.
However, in a recent update, the commission confirmed that EUDR will enter into application on December 30, 2025, for large and medium companies, with a grace period of six months for checks and enforcement. For ‘micro- and small enterprises’, the date has been pushed back to December 30, 2026.
It said the proposed transitional periods would guarantee a smooth transition and strengthen the IT system.
Simplifications
The commission said that, taking into account feedback from stakeholders following its ‘simplification efforts’, its latest proposal introduces targeted simplifications, including:
- To allow for a more efficient use of the IT system, downstream operators and traders should no longer be obliged to submit due diligence statements.
- With this streamlining, only one submission in the EUDR IT system at the entry point in the market will be required for the entire supply chain.
- The reporting obligations and the responsibility would be focused on the operators placing first the products on the market.
“With the meaningful simplification proposed, micro and small primary operators would only submit a simple, one-off declaration in the EUDR IT system,” the commission said.
“When the information is already available, for instance in a Member State database, the operators do not have to take any action in the IT System themselves. This simplification replaces the previous need for regular submissions of due diligence statements.”
IT system
The commission said it has been deploying the IT system in close cooperation with stakeholders, since its launch in December 2024. New projections on the number of expected operations and interactions between economic operators and the IT system have led to a ‘substantial reassessment’ of the projected load on the IT system, which is ‘much higher than anticipated’.
“The system must be capable of handling all due diligence statements for products covered by the law and submitted by all operators,” the commission said.
“The new entry into application dates, combined with the simplification of obligations for supply chain actors aims to ensure that the IT system can sustain the level of expected loads.”
The European Parliament and the Council will now discuss the Commission’s proposal. They would need to formally adopt the targeted amendment of EUDR before it can come into effect.