The European Parliament and Council have accepted the European Commission's proposal to grant an additional 12-month period for the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
The announcement of this preliminary political agreement was published on the website of the EU's central executive body.
Once officially adopted, the law will come into force on December 30, 2025 for large companies and June 30, 2026 for micro and small enterprises. This will allow third countries, Member States, operators and traders an additional year to prepare for the implementation of the Regulation.
The European Commission made its proposal to postpone the implementation of EUDR after numerous comments and warnings from international partners, Member States and companies about the state of preparation. They said that they did not have enough time to adapt to the new rules.
“The additional 12-month time to phase in the system is a balanced solution to support operators worldwide in ensuring a smooth implementation from the very beginning. This is necessary in order to guarantee certainty about further actions and to ensure the success of the EUDR," officials say.
The European Commission promised to continue to provide clarification on the legislation and consider additional simplifications by updating the guidelines and the document with answers to frequently asked questions.
Officials assured that they aim to complete the development of the country benchmarking system as soon as possible, but no later than June 30, 2025. The information system, where companies will register their due diligence statements, will be launched on December 4.
The next step is the formal adoption of the targeted amendment to the EU Deforestation Regulation by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. After that, it will come into force.
In early October, EcoPolitic reported that the European Commission proposes to postpone the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation, which was supposed to take place on December 30, 2024, for another year.
