EU Confirms Delay to Deforestation Regulation
Brussels – Qahwa World
The European Commission has confirmed a further one-year delay to the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), citing IT system capacity issues and risks of disruption to supply chains.
The regulation, which entered into force in June 2023, sets strict due diligence requirements for commodities including palm oil, cattle, soy, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber, and derived products such as beef, furniture, and chocolate. Originally scheduled for application from December 30, 2024, implementation was already postponed once to December 2025. The new proposal extends the deadline by an additional 12 months.
“While our simplification efforts have been substantial, we have concluded that we cannot meet the original deadline without causing disruptions to our businesses and supply chains,” said European Commission trade spokesperson Olof Gill. He added that the IT platform designed to handle compliance documentation faces “serious capacity concerns given the projected load.”
Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall stressed that the delay provides “the necessary time to get the IT system capacity that we need.” She also rejected suggestions that the decision was linked to ongoing trade talks with the United States or Indonesia, noting that the U.S. has already been recognized as posing “negligible risk” to global deforestation.
The proposal must now be approved by EU member states and the European Parliament.
The delay was welcomed by the European People’s Party (EPP), parliament’s largest group, which has long argued the regulation placed disproportionate burdens on small and medium-sized businesses, including coffee roasters, foresters, and farmers. “If the deforestation regulation had entered into force unchanged on 1 January, it would have caused unsolvable problems,” said EPP environment spokesperson Peter Liese.
Christine Schneider, the parliament’s lead negotiator on EUDR, called for a “zero-risk category” to exempt commodities and regions with no deforestation link from additional documentation requirements.
However, environmental organizations sharply criticized the move. The WWF described the delay as “a massive embarrassment for President von der Leyen and her Commission,” warning it reflects a lack of political will to ensure timely enforcement. The Greens’ agriculture coordinator Thomas Waitz called it “a dark day for global forest protection,” accusing the Commission of bowing to pressure from the agricultural and sawmill lobbies.
The Commission’s decision underscores a broader trend of prioritizing industrial competitiveness over environmental regulation. Earlier this year, a majority of EU members had already urged postponement. Critics fear that repeated delays undermine the EU’s credibility as a leader in global climate and forest protection efforts.
The debate also resonates with global commodity markets, from agriculture and biofuels to biomass and petrochemicals, where compliance costs, supply chain transparency, and IT readiness remain pressing concerns.
