The European Commission has announced it is considering another one-year postponment of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) compliance.
PaperAge editor's note: The following news item was published online by the law firm, Ropes & Gray.
Sept. 24, 2025 - With just over three months until EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) compliance is scheduled to start, the European Commission has announced it is considering another one-year extension. Read more about this development in this post.
In a September 23 letter, Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, sent letters to the Parliament and Council indicating that the Commission's information system for transactions covered by the EUDR currently is not expected to be able to adequately handle all of those transactions. The EUDR applies to cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soy(a) and wood, as well as many derived products.
From the letter:
"Based on the available information, the Commission's assessment is that this will very likely lead to the system slowing down to unacceptable levels or even to repeated and long-lasting disruptions, which would negatively impact companies and their possibilities to comply with the EUDR. Operators would be unable to register as economic operators, introduce their Due Diligence Statements, retrieve the necessary information from the IT system, or provide the necessary information for customs purposes where relevant. This would severely impact the achievement of the objectives of EUDR, but also potentially affect trade flows in the areas covered by the legislation."
"Despite efforts to address the issues in time for the entry into application of the EUDR, it is not possible to have sufficient guarantees that the IT system will be able to sustain the level of the expected load."
The one-year postponement is intended to allow time to remedy the identified risks.
With EUDR compliance looming, expect the Commission to quickly release a "stop the clock" proposal. To secure quick approval by the Council and Parliament - which is not necessarily a given - it is likely that the proposal will be limited to timing and will not seek to address the substance of the EUDR. As further discussed below, other initiatives underway may separately seek to further scale back or otherwise modify the EUDR.
As noted above, EUDR compliance already has been delayed by a year. In addition, in April, updated guidance and FAQs were published by the European Commission that simplified some aspects of EUDR compliance (see this Ropes & Gray post). According to the Commission, these measures will in the aggregate result in an estimated 30% reduction in administrative costs and burden for companies.
Over the past year, there have been numerous calls to further delay and streamline the EUDR. The calls have gotten louder with the initial compliance date drawing near. For example:
The complete article is avaialable here on Ropes & Gray's website.
SOURCE: Ropes & Gray