The EU Parliament voted for the postponement on November 14th. This was proposed by the EU Commission in October. Now 371 MPs voted for the postponement, 240 were against it and 30 abstained.
The changes that have been decided also include adding a further category for classification: countries “without risk” of deforestation will now also be listed, alongside those with “low”, “standard” and “high” risk. Countries in the “no risk” category have stable or growing forest area development. These countries should be given a lower duty of care.
The medium-sized business association welcomes the proposals, but at the same time complains that it was not possible to remove retail as a whole from the EUDR’s scope of duties. According to its own statements, the association had pointed out several times that this would be a proportionate approach that would massively relieve the burden on medium-sized companies in particular without jeopardizing the objectives of the deforestation regulation.
European legislators have only been able to reduce the burden on the EUDR to the necessary level with limitations, the association continued. Negotiations now starting between the EU institutions should now be used to find the right balance between sustainability and economic realities.
