Today the EU Parliament voted on 9 amendments to the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) accepting 8 and rejecting 1 with 378 MEPs in favor and 641 abstaining.
Of the 8 amendments approved the top line changes are:
- The proposal of the Commission was approved to delay the implementation of the EUDR by 12 months, with a new enforcement date of December 30 2025.
- A “No-Risk” country category has been added to the list of Country Benchmarks that already include low, standard, and high risk countries. Companies sourcing from countries with a “no-risk” designation would have fewer due diligence obligations compared to low, standard or high risk countries.
- The Commission has been given the mandate to publish new FAQs and Guidance to align with the recently approved amendments and give further details on how to comply with the regulation.
Notably, the amendment that was rejected was set to reduce the due diligence obligations for all traders. This amendment was seen as a redline that would weaken the regulation too drastically.
Below is an overview of the content of the approved amendments, as well as an updated timeline as trilogue negotiations resume.
Timeline
A new trilogue negotiation will start as soon as possible to negotiate on the Parliament’s approved amendments and the 12 month delay.
The proposal now returns to the European Parliament's Environment Committee (ENVI), with trilogue negotiations expected to start next week. According to an article published by Euractiv, liberal and left-wing groups continue to urge European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to withdraw the proposal, especially after she reportedly assured Renew’s Valérie Hayer that she would do so if amendments were passed.
The Parliament and the Council have until mid-December to reach an agreement before the regulation takes effect on December 30th. The last chance for MEPs to adopt the final text will be the plenary session taking place from December 16-19.
No-risk Country Benchmark
One of the approved amendments states that the EU Information System and the country Benchmark system or ‘risk classifications’ must be fully functioning six months before the new December 30 2025 enforcement deadline. Any country designated as ‘no-risk’ must meet all of the following criteria:
- forest area development has remained stable or has increased compared to 1990;
- the Paris Agreement and international conventions on human rights and on preventing deforestation have been signed by those countries and parts thereof;
- regulations on preventing deforestation and forest conservation at national level are strictly implemented and enforced in full transparency and monitored.
Operators that place or make available on the market or export relevant commodities and relevant products produced in countries or parts thereof that present no risk in accordance with Article 29 shall fulfill the documentation requirements by making the following documents available to the competent authorities upon request by competent authorities:
- trade name and type of the relevant products;
- the quantity of the relevant products;
- the country of production and, where relevant, parts thereof;
- the name, postal address and email address of any business or person from whom they have been supplied with the relevant products;
- the name, postal address and email address of any business, operator or trader to whom the relevant products have been supplied;
- adequately conclusive and verifiable information that the relevant products are free of forest degradation;
- adequately conclusive and verifiable information that the relevant commodities have been produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production.’
Operators sourcing from no risk countries would not need to submit Due Diligence Statements to place their products on the market, and would not need to submit geolocation data or date of harvest for the associated plots of land. However, low, standard and high risk countries would maintain the same due diligence obligations as written in the original adopted text of the Regulation.
The amendments justify the no-risk category by saying:
“Introducing a “no risk” category in the EUDR benchmarking system could streamline compliance for regions with strong, verified anti-deforestation measures, reducing administrative burdens for both regulators and businesses. This approach would reward countries actively protecting their forests, encourage other regions to improve their practices, and allow the EU to allocate resources more effectively toward higher-risk areas. The new category will offer an opportunity for countries to enforce stronger national deforestation laws and commit to cooperate with international climate and human rights conventions.”
Enforcement
In addition to the required audits by competent authorities of 9% of goods originating from high risk countries, 3% of goods originating from standard risk countries and 1% of goods originating from low risk countries, each Member State would need to ensure that the annual checks carried out by its competent authorities cover at least 0.1 % of the operators placing or making available on the market or exporting relevant products from no risk countries.
What this means for your business
Companies must continue to prepare for the EU Deforestation Regulation, and should use this 12 month delay as an opportunity to ensure that all areas of their supply chain are compliant with the law. Until the EU publishes its country risk benchmark, all countries are assumed to be standard risk, and therefore have full due diligence obligations under the law. Should the “no-risk” designation be enacted into law, it will likely be highly political and controversial which countries receive such a designation. No operators should assume that their sourcing country will meet the steep requirements to be considered “no-risk”.
Furthermore, assuming that the delay and approved amendments are enacted into law, Member States and competent authorities would have stricter requirements to ensure that goods coming from high and standard risk countries are properly audited and checked. The delay will provide an opportunity for competent authorities to prepare to enforce the Regulation to the fullest extent of the law.
Companies should utilize this time to not only pre-screen their suppliers for deforestation, but also for legality as outlined in the latest Implementation Guidance published by the Commission.
To learn more about how Sourcemap can help pre-screen your supply chain for compliance with the EU Deforestation Regulation, reach out to our team of experts.
