EU Deforestation Regulation: European Commission Proposes 12-Month Extension of Phasing-in Period to Support Global Implementation

03.10.2024 Press and information team of the Delegation to the Australia

On 2 October, the European Commission published additional guidance documents to support third countries in their preparations for the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation. The Commission also proposed giving an additional 12 months to prepare for the law. If approved by the European Parliament and the Council, this would make the law applicable on 30 December 2025 for large companies and 30 June 2026 for micro- and small enterprises, with the extra time serving as a phasing-in period.

The 12-month extension is the only proposed change to the law and in no way puts into question the objectives or the substance of the law, as agreed by the EU co-legislators.

The Commission also announced that a large majority of countries worldwide will be classified as ‘low risk' after applying the benchmarking exercise. This will give the opportunity to focus collective efforts where deforestation challenges are more acute.

The EU Deforestation Regulation aims to ensure that the EU does not contribute to deforestation. It requires that a set of commodities (cocoa, coffee, soy, palm oil, wood, rubber, and cattle) and products from those commodities are not sourced from deforested land as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Deforestation and forest degradation are important drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss — the two key environmental challenges of our time. The FAO estimates that 420 million hectares of forest — an area larger than the European Union — were lost to deforestation between 1990 and 2020.

The co-legislators adopted the law in 2023, with overwhelming majorities both in the Parliament and in the Council. As part of the preparation of its 2021 proposal, the Commission conducted a public consultation which attracted the second largest number of responses (almost 1.2 million), with the vast majority of stakeholders supporting an ambitious approach including mandatory due diligence.