The European Commission today has confirmed a further one year delay to the bloc's deforestation regulation (EUDR) citing IT issues and supply chain concerns.
The EUDR sets due diligence requirements for palm oil, cattle, soy, coffee, cocoa, timber and rubber and derived products, including beef, furniture and chocolate.
"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 commission trade spokesperson Olof Gill.
The delay is also a result of IT system capacity issues. "We have serious capacity concerns regarding the IT system, given the projected load," Gill said.
The delay provides the "necessary time to get the IT system capacity that we need" according to EU environment commissioner Jessika Roswall. EPP environment spokesperson Peter Liese said that if the deforestation regulation had entered into force unchanged on 1 January, technical issues would have caused unsolvable problems.
This second delay to the EUDR, for a further 12 months, will require approval by EU member states and the European parliament. In October 2024, the commission proposed a first 12 month delay or ""phasing-in time", shifting EUDR implementation from 1 January to 30 December 2025.
The EUDR entered into force in June 2023.
Parliament's largest centre-right EPP group welcomed the new postponement. The EUDR's problems run deep, said Christine Schneider, parliament's lead negotiator on EUDR. She also called for a zero-risk category under the regulation where regions and products posing no risk of deforestation would be treated "in an non-bureaucratic manner and without additional documentation requirements".
The EU pledged to address US producers and exporters' concerns, recognising that the US poses "negligible" risk to global deforestation. Roswall added that the delay was not linked to the EU-US trade deal.
US chocolate and snack giant Mondelez had requested a one-year delay earlier this month, receiving criticism from environmental and civil rights organisations.
