Companies will have one more year to adapt to new EU rules to prevent deforestation, which will ban the sale of products sourced from deforested land in the EU.
Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional political agreement this week to postpone the application of the new rules.
Large operators and traders will now have to respect the obligations of this regulation as of December 30, 2025, and micro- and small enterprises from June 30, 2026.
This additional time is intended to help companies around the world implement the rules “more smoothly from the beginning, without undermining the objectives of the law”.
The European Commission proposed a one-year deferral in response to concerns raised by EU member states, non-EU countries, traders and operators that they would not be able to fully comply with the rules if applied from the end of 2024.
Deforestation law
The deforestation regulation aims to fight climate change and biodiversity loss by preventing deforestation related to EU consumption of palm oil, cattle, soya, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber and products derived from these commodities.
Under the regulation, any operator or trader who places these commodities on the EU market, or exports from it, must be able to prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation.
The new regulation means that companies will only be allowed to sell products in the EU if the supplier provides a “due diligence” statement, confirming that the product does not come from deforested land or has led to forest degradation.
Provisional agreement
The information system where businesses will register their due diligence statements as required under the EU Deforestation Regulation is now in operation.
The vote on the informal agreement between the co-legislators will be added to the agenda of the parliament’s next plenary session, which will take place on December 16-19.
In order for the postponement to enter into force, the agreed text has to be endorsed by the parliament and the council and published in the EU Official Journal before year end.
In the context of a general review of the regulation expected no later than June 30, 2028, the commission will analyse additional measures to simplify and reduce administrative burden.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that 420 million hectares of forest — an area larger than the EU — were lost to deforestation between 1990 and 2020.
EU consumption represents around 10% of global deforestation, with palm oil and soya accounting for more than two-thirds of this, according to the parliament.