EU deforestation law: Parliament set to adopt one-year delay
The EU deforestation law aims to ensure that products sold in the EU are not sourced from deforested land anywhere in the world.
The provisional political agreement between Parliament and the Council will postpone for one year the application of the EU deforestation regulation, which was originally to be applied by companies from 30 December 2024. The plenary vote is scheduled for Tuesday.
Large operators and traders will now have to respect the obligations of this regulation as of 30 December 2025, and micro- and small enterprises from 30 June 2026. The additional year is intended to help companies around the world implement the rules more smoothly from the beginning, without undermining the objectives of the law.
Background
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 420 million hectares of forest — an area larger than the EU — were lost to deforestation between 1990 and 2020. EU consumption represents around 10% of global deforestation, more than two-thirds of which comes from palm oil and soya production.
The EU deforestation regulation aims to fight climate change and biodiversity loss by preventing deforestation related to EU consumption of products from cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm-oil, soya, wood, rubber, charcoal and printed paper.
Procedure: Ordinary legislative procedure
Procedure code: 2024/0249(COD)
Vote: Tuesday 17 December