On November 14th, the members of the European Parliament voted 371 to 240 in favour of a one-year delay of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) (EU) 2023/1115.
The EU Parliament wanted to give companies one more year to comply as mentioned in the Press release.
This was the expected outcome after the European Commission announced its proposal for postponement in a Press release last month and the EU Council supported the proposal shortly afterwards. An attempt to include several other changes to significantly ease the obligations and extend the delay with two years was removed just before the vote.
Because of the changes made to the proposal voted on by Parliament, one more step is needed. The Parliament decided to refer the file back to committee for interinstitutional negotiations. In order for these changes to enter into force, the agreed text will have to be endorsed by both Council and Parliament and published in the EU Official Journal.
Update: On December 3rd, negotiators from the Parliament and Council reached a provisional political agreement on the postponement (Press release).
Final: On December 18th the European Council formally adopted the postponement (Press release).
The main objective of the EUDR is to effectively ban products that are linked to deforestation. Published in June 2023 it was intended to enter into 18 months later, from 30 December 2024, with an additional six months for small and micro-undertakings until 30 June 2025. Both dates are now pushed back with one year.
The changes will probably lead to an update of the EUDR Guidance document that was published early October.
