The European Parliament has given its final sign-off to the proposed delay to the application of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
The vote today in a plenary (full) session of the parliament endorses an agreement from earlier this month between negotiators from the parliament and the Council of the EU (council of ministers).
Under the proposed amendment, businesses will have an additional year to ensure they are compliant with the regulation, which, when eventually implemented, will ban the sale, within the EU, of products sourced from deforested land.
Parliament adopted the provisional political agreement with the council to delay the application of the new rules with 546 votes to 97, and 7 abstentions.
Of the 14 Irish MEPs, only three – Lynn Boylan and Kathleen Funchion, both of Sinn Féin, as well as Luke Ming Flanagan – voted against delaying the proposal to delay, with the remaining 11 voting in favour.
The only step remaining in the process before the delay is finally confirmed will be the final sign-off from the council on the provisional agreement.
If the proposed delay is confirmed, the EUDR will apply from December 30, 2025 (or June 30, 2026, for small enterprise) rather than December 30, 2024.
Operators will have to respect the obligations of this regulation as of these dates.
The additional time is intended to help companies around the world “implement the rules more smoothly” from the date of application, without undermining the objectives of the law.
The proposal to delay came from the European Commission, in response to concerns raised by some 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.
Following requests from the parliament, the commission has committed to ensuring both the information system for operators and traders, and the proposal for the risk classification of countries and regions, will be available as soon as possible, and at the latest by June 30, 2025.
A general review of the regulation is expected no later than June 30, 2028, and the commission will analyse additional measures to simplify and reduce the administrative burden for companies.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (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, of which more than two thirds comes from palm oil and soya production.
The EUDR, initially adopted by the parliament on April 19, 2023, aims to fight climate change and biodiversity loss by preventing deforestation.