On October 2, 2024, the European Commission (EC) published additional guidance documents and a stronger international cooperation framework to support global stakeholders, Member States, and third countries in their implementation preparations of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The Commission also proposed to give concerned parties an additional 12 months to prepare.
According to the Commission, the presented EUDR guidance will provide “additional clarity” to companies and enforcing authorities to facilitate the application of the rules, coming on top of the Commission’s “continuous support for stakeholders since the law’s adoption.”
Extended implementation period proposed
At the same time, the Commission recognizes that three months ahead of the intended implementation date, several global partners have repeatedly expressed concerns about their state of preparedness, most recently during the United Nations General Assembly week in New York.
Moreover, the state of preparations amongst stakeholders in Europe is also uneven. While many expect to be ready in time, thanks to intensive preparations, others have expressed concerns.
Given the EUDR’s “novel character, the swift calendar, and the variety of international stakeholders involved”, the Commission considers that a 12-month additional time to phase in the system is “a balanced solution to support operators around the world in securing a smooth implementation from the start.”
With this step, the Commission aims to provide certainty about the way forward and to ensure the success of the EUDR, which is paramount to address the EU’s contribution to the pressing global issue of deforestation.
The Commission also emphasized that the extension proposal “in no way puts into question the objectives or the substance of the law, as agreed by the EU co-legislators.”
If approved by the European Parliament and the Council, it would make EUDR applicable on December 30, 2025, for large companies and June 30, 2026, for micro- and small enterprises.
Since all the implementation tools are technically ready, the extra 12 months can serve as a “phasing-in period to ensure proper and effective implementation.”
Additional guidance for “effective and pragmatic implementation”
The presented guidance documents “make good” on the Commission’s commitment to provide a reference of the recent collaborative efforts, involving stakeholders and competent authorities, to help ensure uniform interpretation of the law.
Key areas covered include details on the functionalities of the Information System, updates on penalties, and clarifications on critical definitions such as ‘forest degradation’, ‘operator’ in the scope of the law, and ‘placing on the market’.
There is also further guidance on traceability obligations.
The guidance is divided into 11 chapters covering a diverse range of issues such as legality requirements, timeframe of application, agricultural use, and clarifications on the product scope.
All of these are, the Commission says, supported by tangible scenarios. In addition, the latest FAQ, also published on October 2, 2024, features over 40 new additional answers to address questions raised by a diverse range of stakeholders from around the world.
Micro- and small companies benefit from a lighter regime, which is also detailed on a new dedicated webpage.
Information for the general public on the Commission website has also been updated and reorganized for easier understanding by all.
Transparent country benchmarking and stepped-up international partners’ cooperation
The Commission has also published the principles of the methodology it will apply to the EUDR benchmarking exercise, serving to classify countries as low, standard, or high risk, aiming to facilitate operators’ due diligence processes and enable competent authorities to effectively monitor and enforce compliance.
Following the methodology applied, a large majority of countries worldwide will be classified as ‘low risk’. This will give the opportunity to focus collective efforts where deforestation challenges are more acute.
To help ensure smooth implementation worldwide, the Commission and the European External Action Service are presenting a strategic framework for international cooperation engagement on the EUDR.
It identifies five priority areas of action such as support to smallholders, eight key principles such as a human rights-centred approach, and several implementation tools including dialogue and financing.
This comprehensive framework will aim to promote a just and inclusive transition to deforestation-free agricultural supply chains leaving no one behind.
While the EU will step up dialogue and support even further, the partnership’s success will also rest on EU partners’ commitment to deliver on global targets to halt deforestation.
Completion of the dedicated IT system
The Information System where businesses will register their due diligence statements is ready to start accepting registrations in early November 2024 and for full operation in December 2024.
Operators and traders will be able to register and submit due diligence statements even before the law’s entry into application.
Since the system’s pilot testing with 100 companies was conducted in January this year, the Commission put in place several additional measures, including:
- Creating a single point of contact for IT support for stakeholders.
- Development of an interface that allows machine-to-machine connections to the system, without the need for manual data input; more than 250 private stakeholders are developing this feature on their side.
- Support to test the geolocation files of stakeholders and provide feedback.
- Videos and detailed multilingual user instructions about the system.
- Training for interested stakeholders – the first session took place in Brussels, Belgium (on September 25, 2024). Online training will take place from the second half of October.
With the announced actions the Commission considers that the necessary conditions for smooth implementation will be fulfilled.
Companies and other stakeholders are invited to complete their connections, testing, and training for the use of the IT System.
The Commission is intensifying dialogues with most concerned countries, which will feed into the speedy finalization of the country benchmarking system through a proposed Implementing Act by June 30, 2025.
The Commission invites the European Parliament and the Council to adopt the proposal for an extended implementation period by the end of the year.
