On October 2, 2024, the European Commission proposed a 12-month postponement of the implementation of the Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). While the European Parliament and Council have yet to agree to the Commission's proposal, forest industry- and bioenergy trade bodies have welcomed the proposal.
In response to feedback from member states, trade partners, and industry stakeholders, the European Commission proposed a draft amendment to postpone by a year the implementation of the Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) aiming to limit deforestation linked to commodities, not only imported but also produced and exported from the European Union (EU).
A welcome proposal
The new proposal would delay the compliance deadline to December 30, 2025, for large companies and June 30, 2026, for smaller enterprises.
However, as stakeholders point out, the Commission’s proposed extension needs the approval of the European Parliament and the Council, and inter-institutional negotiations have less than three months to be concluded.
Bioenergy Europe says that it “welcomes this extension, which provides time for effective implementation.”
The additional months allow businesses to align with the new standards without unnecessary disruption, especially in the case of small-scale businesses, and Bioenergy Europe continues “to support the EUDR’s goals, offering constructive contributions for a successful implementation.”
“Too important not to get right”
The long-awaited implementation guidelines for EUDR were also published in conjunction with the Commission’s announcement.
However, as the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) highlights, the information system built by the EU to enforce the tracking of materials and commodities remains to be completed.
Furthermore, a benchmarking system assessing the risk level by country is also still pending.
Based on these delays, “the EU pulp and paper sector represented by Cepi has been vocal about the need for an adequate transition period for the EUDR.”
CEPI also points out that it is “not unusual to see transitional implementation periods applied to EU legislation. The predecessor to the EUDR, the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) had a 3-year transition period, for a much simpler system. The EUTR remains in place and ensures no wood from illegal sources is placed on the EU market.”
EUDR rules state that companies must ensure that their products are not made in areas deforested after 2020.
They require passing tracking information along complex value chains, which is particularly challenging when materials are mixed from different sources as in the case of paper.
The delay will now allow for a better implementation of the regulation, and a stronger impact on deforestation.
The EUDR is too important not to get it right. We certainly do not ignore the environmental crisis and the climate emergency, which the EUDR is designed to help solve. Nor is our industry a source of deforestation. From a business angle, deforestation is a major reputational risk for any industry; our industry also depends on healthy forests for our own future. We fully support the objectives of the EUDR, and with this new timeline, we believe that the EU and its trade partners now have a much better chance at finally eradicating deforestation, said Jori Ringman, Director-General of CEPI.
Sweden is one EU member state with a strong forest industry- and bioenergy sector. The Swedish Bioenergy Association (Svebio) has members across the entire bioenergy value chain including forest industries, biomass fuel producers, and district energy companies.
Many of our member companies are anxious about how the EUDR would work in practice. There is neither Swedish legislation nor application regulations in place. Even so, companies that do not comply with the EUDR may risk fines. For legal certainty, the only right thing to do is to postpone the entry into force, commented Anna Törner, CEO of Svebio.
