Socio-economic and environmental impacts of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on the European leather supply chain
11.4.2025
Question for written answer E-001517/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Salvatore De Meo (PPE), Letizia Moratti (PPE), Massimiliano Salini (PPE), Flavio Tosi (PPE), Christine Schneider (PPE), Elena Donazzan (ECR), Francesco Torselli (ECR), Sebastian Tynkkynen (ECR), Mariateresa Vivaldini (ECR), Tomáš Kubín (PfE), Petr Bystron (ESN), Diana Iovanovici Şoşoacă (NI)
Considering that:
• Regulation (EU) 2023/1115[1] on deforestation-free products (the EU Deforestation Regulation – EUDR) also requires tanneries to trace skins from the birth of the animal in order to demonstrate the absence of links with deforestation;
• Skin is a by-product (Regulation (EC) 1069/2009[2]), waste that occurs from the slaughtering of cattle, representing only 1-2 % of the animal, and does not affect livestock breeding dynamics or deforestation phenomena;
• Tanneries recover this waste, and that limiting such activity as a consequence of the EUDR’s application would have negative environmental effects, as the skins would have to be disposed of as waste and replaced with more polluting synthetic materials;
• Under the rules of the EUDR, European tanneries, importing from 177 countries worldwide, will face the objectively impossible task of retrieving traceability data, thereby jeopardising their competitiveness and favouring non-EU producers, such as those in China, who are not subject to equivalent constraints;
• The EUDR does not cover finished leather products (e.g., shoes), allowing for the entry into the EU of items tanned elsewhere, and thereby distorting competition.
We ask the Commission:
- 1.When will the impact assessment, pursuant to Article 34(3) of the EUDR, be available, and does the Commission intend to exclude leather from Annex I?
- 2.Does the Commission nevertheless plan to simplify the EUDR?
Supporter[3]
Submitted: 11.4.2025
- [1] Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on the making available on the Union market and the export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation and repealing Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 (OJ L 150, 9.6.2023, p. 206, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1115/oj).
- [2] Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 laying down health rules as regards animal by-products and derived products not intended for human consumption and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 (Animal by-products Regulation) (OJ L 300, 14.11.2009, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2009/1069/oj).
- [3] This question is supported by a Member other than the authors: Fernand Kartheiser (ECR)