By Dave Keating | Euractiv's Advocacy Lab
Sep 23, 2024
To calm growing alarm, the Commission said it would come out with additional guidelines in the Spring.
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Calls for EUDR postponement have created confusion for companies over when and if they will have to comply.
As lawmakers clash this month over whether to stick with rigid enforcement of the EU’s new Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR), with obligations set to take effect in December, companies have been left questioning whether they should move forward with urgent reporting and certification preparation.
Earlier this month, German Food and Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir asked the European Commission to postpone the regulation’s application by six months to 1 July 2025, saying: “The Commission must finally come out of the summer break and provide clarity,” he wrote. “I take the concerns of companies, agriculture and forestry, and the countries very seriously. Companies need sufficient time to prepare.”
He added: “This also applies to countries with small-scale production structures. Otherwise, supply chains threaten to break at the end of the year – to the detriment of the German and European economy, small farmers in third countries, and consumers.”
‘Bureaucratic monster’
The message has also been carried forward by conservative German members of the European Parliament. “We call on the Commission to immediately delay the implementation of the Deforestation Law,” said Herbert Dorfmann, EPP coordinator in the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, this week. Peter Liese, a powerful member of the Parliament’s Environment Committee, agreed and called the legislation a “bureaucratic monster” which could threaten the EU’s animal feed supply and disrupt trade in many consumer goods.
To calm growing alarm, the Commission said it would come out with additional guidelines in the Spring. But these guidelines have yet to emerge.
Centre-left MEPs are urging the Commission to stick to the original timeline for implementing the law. A group of centre-left MEPs, including Italy’s Brando Benifei and Germany’s Delara Burkhardt, have sent the Commission a letter saying, “It is crucial that the EUDR is applied without delay.” They urged the Commission to quickly finalise the guidelines and FAQs as a matter of urgency and said a “user-friendly IT system” should be created for companies to submit compliance documents.
The EUDR became law in June last year, mandating that any operators or traders engaged in importing or exporting certain commodities within the EU market demonstrate that the products are not linked to deforestation or forest degradation. They will have to start proving this in December.
Products also need to be produced by the relevant legislation of the country of production as well as follow strict traceability requirements set by the regulation. The law applies to soy, oil palm, rubber, wood, coffee, cacao and cattle. To achieve this, businesses will be required to gather geolocation data and carry out due diligence before bringing their products to market.
Due diligence
The due diligence process required of companies will consist of three main components: information gathering, risk assessment and risk mitigation. There are concerns about the impact on European supply chains, in particular, the scale of the requirements has sparked concerns about how smallholder farmers in third countries, who don’t have the resources to invest in their certification systems, will be affected.
The European Parliament elections in June 2024 have led to a more conservative Parliament and Commission, with over half of the new commissioners in Ursula von der Leyen’s college coming from her own conservative European Peoples Party. That has created questions over whether the new term will see a dilution of some of the environment and climate laws that were passed during the previous term.
Progressive parties such as the Greens and Social Democrats have been staunch defenders of strict environmental laws. The EUDR is being seen as one of the key tests for the new term. Will it be watered down or postponed?
Soft launch?
Industry insiders say they don’t expect the core requirements of the EUDR to be weakened, even if the Commission does decide to delay its application start date. What might happen, they say, is a soft launch with a transition period. This would mean that while all requirements officially take effect at the end of December, national governments would start with actual enforcement later, in 2025 or 2026.
In this case, sample verifications and checks would begin at a later stage once countries are ready and have prepared their verification systems.
In any event, people in the certification sector are advising companies to continue for now with the expectation of full enforcement in December.
ISCC, the International Sustainability Certification body, has been preparing tools for companies to ensure compliance. The advice for companies is don’t assume anything about the law that hasn’t yet been decided and proceed as if requirements will come in December. ISCC certification is currently available for oil palm, soy, rubber and wood.
In the meantime, forestry campaigners are urging the Commission to quickly come out with guidelines rather than delaying the law. “Action by the EU is needed, but not the action that EUDR’s detractors want,” Sam Lawson, Director of the campaign group Earthsight, wrote this week.
She said: “Research shows that the destruction being wrought by these commodities in forest countries is almost entirely the responsibility of large companies, not smallholder producers. The EU is already investing in helping to ensure that those smallholders can benefit from their relative lack of complicity by supporting their efforts to prove their compliance. But that EU support must be ramped up.”
“The EU should also press the large companies through whom smallholder-produced commodities reach Europe to invest their vast profits in that effort,” she added.
Expand not weaken
Lawson believes the law should be expanded, not weakened, to include commodities produced through the destruction of precious non-forest biomes and expand its scope to cover other commodities like cotton.
The balance between environmental ambitions and economic realities will be a key focus in the post-election landscape. For better or worse, the EUDR is now being seen as the first test of whether the building blocks of von der Leyen’s Green Deal will hold firm with the new political realities in the EU’s institutions.
[Edited By Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]
Calls for EUDR postponement have created confusion for companies over when and if they will have to comply.
As lawmakers clash this month over whether to stick with rigid enforcement of the EU’s new Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR), with obligations set to take effect in December, companies have been left questioning whether they should move forward with urgent reporting and certification preparation.
Earlier this month, German Food and Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir asked the European Commission to postpone the regulation’s application by six months to 1 July 2025, saying: “The Commission must finally come out of the summer break and provide clarity,” he wrote. “I take the concerns of companies, agriculture and forestry, and the countries very seriously. Companies need sufficient time to prepare.”
He added: “This also applies to countries with small-scale production structures. Otherwise, supply chains threaten to break at the end of the year – to the detriment of the German and European economy, small farmers in third countries, and consumers.”
‘Bureaucratic monster’
The message has also been carried forward by conservative German members of the European Parliament. “We call on the Commission to immediately delay the implementation of the Deforestation Law,” said Herbert Dorfmann, EPP coordinator in the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, this week. Peter Liese, a powerful member of the Parliament’s Environment Committee, agreed and called the legislation a “bureaucratic monster” which could threaten the EU’s animal feed supply and disrupt trade in many consumer goods.
To calm growing alarm, the Commission said it would come out with additional guidelines in the Spring. But these guidelines have yet to emerge.
Centre-left MEPs are urging the Commission to stick to the original timeline for implementing the law. A group of centre-left MEPs, including Italy’s Brando Benifei and Germany’s Delara Burkhardt, have sent the Commission a letter saying, “It is crucial that the EUDR is applied without delay.” They urged the Commission to quickly finalise the guidelines and FAQs as a matter of urgency and said a “user-friendly IT system” should be created for companies to submit compliance documents.
The EUDR became law in June last year, mandating that any operators or traders engaged in importing or exporting certain commodities within the EU market demonstrate that the products are not linked to deforestation or forest degradation. They will have to start proving this in December.
Products also need to be produced by the relevant legislation of the country of production as well as follow strict traceability requirements set by the regulation. The law applies to soy, oil palm, rubber, wood, coffee, cacao and cattle. To achieve this, businesses will be required to gather geolocation data and carry out due diligence before bringing their products to market.
Due diligence
The due diligence process required of companies will consist of three main components: information gathering, risk assessment and risk mitigation. There are concerns about the impact on European supply chains, in particular, the scale of the requirements has sparked concerns about how smallholder farmers in third countries, who don’t have the resources to invest in their certification systems, will be affected.
The European Parliament elections in June 2024 have led to a more conservative Parliament and Commission, with over half of the new commissioners in Ursula von der Leyen’s college coming from her own conservative European Peoples Party. That has created questions over whether the new term will see a dilution of some of the environment and climate laws that were passed during the previous term.
Progressive parties such as the Greens and Social Democrats have been staunch defenders of strict environmental laws. The EUDR is being seen as one of the key tests for the new term. Will it be watered down or postponed?
Soft launch?
Industry insiders say they don’t expect the core requirements of the EUDR to be weakened, even if the Commission does decide to delay its application start date. What might happen, they say, is a soft launch with a transition period. This would mean that while all requirements officially take effect at the end of December, national governments would start with actual enforcement later, in 2025 or 2026.
In this case, sample verifications and checks would begin at a later stage once countries are ready and have prepared their verification systems.
In any event, people in the certification sector are advising companies to continue for now with the expectation of full enforcement in December.
ISCC, the International Sustainability Certification body, has been preparing tools for companies to ensure compliance. The advice for companies is don’t assume anything about the law that hasn’t yet been decided and proceed as if requirements will come in December. ISCC certification is currently available for oil palm, soy, rubber and wood.
In the meantime, forestry campaigners are urging the Commission to quickly come out with guidelines rather than delaying the law. “Action by the EU is needed, but not the action that EUDR’s detractors want,” Sam Lawson, Director of the campaign group Earthsight, wrote this week.
She said: “Research shows that the destruction being wrought by these commodities in forest countries is almost entirely the responsibility of large companies, not smallholder producers. The EU is already investing in helping to ensure that those smallholders can benefit from their relative lack of complicity by supporting their efforts to prove their compliance. But that EU support must be ramped up.”
“The EU should also press the large companies through whom smallholder-produced commodities reach Europe to invest their vast profits in that effort,” she added.
Expand not weaken
Lawson believes the law should be expanded, not weakened, to include commodities produced through the destruction of precious non-forest biomes and expand its scope to cover other commodities like cotton.
The balance between environmental ambitions and economic realities will be a key focus in the post-election landscape. For better or worse, the EUDR is now being seen as the first test of whether the building blocks of von der Leyen’s Green Deal will hold firm with the new political realities in the EU’s institutions.
[Edited By Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]
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