The European Commission has abandoned plans to postpone its flagship Regulation against deforestation (EUDR), despite statements about a possible one-year pause. Therefore, the European Union's EUDR against deforestation will come into force as planned on December 30.
This was announced by European Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius during a meeting of the EU Environment Council in Luxembourg, according to Politico.
The EUDR aims to make the European market greener. In particular, the Regulation prohibits the import of goods linked to deforestation into the EU. It is intended to ensure that goods such as coffee, cocoa, beef, and palm oil do not enter the European market if they are linked to deforestation.
Under the new EUDR proposal, small businesses will be given an additional year to comply with the Regulation. At the same time, other companies that cannot meet all the requirements at once will have a grace period of six months until June 30.
The European Commission stressed that it does not plan to “back away” from its environmental commitments, but promised to simplify some procedures for businesses in order to reduce the bureaucratic burden.
According to the commissioner, only the company that places the product on the market for the first time will have to submit a declaration of proper verification in order to reduce the amount of documentation and the burden on the IT system.
We remind EcoPolitics readers that Regulation 2025/2083, which simplifies and strengthens the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), was published in the Official Journal of the EU and the Council on October 17. The CBAM simplification regulation came into full effect on October 20.
