Earthsight reaction: EU policymakers agree to scrap “disastrous” amendments to deforestation law

"Although we have dodged a bullet this time, the EPP should never have played fast and loose with such an important law. The EUDR passed in 2023, and the focus should be on implementation, not an endless back-and-forth of reopening and amendments."

- Fyfe Strachan, Earthsight Policy and Communications Lead

PRESS RELEASE 

3 December 2024

Today, European policymakers have provisionally agreed to scrap proposed amendments that would have weakened the landmark EU Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR). The law is intended to prevent European consumption from driving deforestation and associated illegalities across the world. 

The amendments, proposed by the conservative European People’s Party (EPP), would have prevented the law from applying to products from countries designated ‘no-risk.’ In a ‘trilogue’ process, the European Council, European Commission and representatives of the European Parliament agreed to bin these amendments, which were passed by the Parliament in November. 

Policymakers also agreed to delay the law’s implementation by 12 months.

Earthsight’s Policy Lead Fyfe Strachan said: “Like a bad soap opera, the EUDR legislative process has unfolded in dramatic fashion over the past few weeks, only to land back at square one.

The EPP’s ‘no-risk’ amendments would have been disastrous for the EUDR. They would have opened up a massive loophole based on arbitrary criteria that would have made the law nearly impossible to enforce. Rejecting them was the only sensible course of action. 

Although we have dodged a bullet this time, the EPP should never have played fast and loose with such an important law. The EUDR passed in 2023, and the focus should be on implementation, not an endless back-and-forth of reopening and amendments. 

It remains disappointing that the EU has decided to push back the start of the law by one year. The deforestation impacts of this delay will be equivalent to the carbon emissions of 18 million cars. 

After the rollercoaster of the past few weeks, the European Council, Parliament, and Commission must now draw a firm line: there must be no more attacks on the EUDR.”

ENDS

---

Notes to Editors

• The EUDR bans the import or trade within Europe of palm oil, beef, leather, cocoa, coffee, soy, rubber and timber produced illegally or on land deforested since 2020. 
• Earthsight is a London-based non-profit committed to exposing environmental and social crime and their links to global consumption.  
• The European Council’s press release is available here. 

Contacts:

Earthsight Policy and Communications Lead Fyfe Strachan