A major law aimed at curbing deforestation by requiring importers in the European Union to prove their worldwide supply chains are not causing more trees to be felled has been pushed back by a year. File photo by Fernando Bizerra Jr./EPA-EFE
Dec. 4 (UPI) — A major law aimed at curbing deforestation by requiring importers in the European Union to prove their worldwide supply chains are not causing more trees to be felled has been pushed back by a year.
The regulation covering products from coffee and cocoa to leather, tires, paper and wood furniture — provisionally adopted at the end of 2022 and subsequently incorporated into the 27-member country bloc’s European Green Deal rolled out in 2023 — will now come into force at the end of next year.
European Parliament legislators voted in October to delay implementation and water down the requirements by making the checks less strict following protests from agriculture ministries in around a third of EU capitals and trading partners around the world.
However, following pushback from the European Commission, a deal was finalized Tuesday night under which implementation will be delayed but the strict rules contained in the regulation as originally proposed remain intact.
Christine Schneider, the German MEP leading the negotiations between the legislature and the commission, presented the compromise deal as a win-win, saying the environmental gains would still be delivered while pushing back the date when new rules take effect “means businesses, foresters, farmers and authorities will have an additional year to prepare.”
But environmental groups said any hold-up in tackling the destruction of the world’s forests, which the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says is proceeding at an alarming pace due to the drive for more agricultural land, mostly in the tropics, was unacceptable and a dereliction of duty.
“We cannot afford delays to much-needed environmental protection laws like the EU’s anti-deforestation legislation,” said Global Witness senior campaigner Giulia Bondi.
German Green Party MEP Anna Cavazzini condemned the move as reckless in the face of what she said was a “global emergency.”
“I simply find it irresponsible to delay this law by another year in this situation,” said Cavazzini.
In line with its pledge to slim down the amount of red tape in the notoriously bureaucratic EU — particularly regulation affecting business — the ruling center-right European People’s Party had been pushing for a two-year delay and exceptions that would have substantially diluted the law.
It also wanted a new “no risk” classification covering items sourced from regions where deforestation was not an issue or only a slight risk.
However, by late last week the EPP had conceded all its demands in exchange for a pledge to simplify the law and reduce the burden on business when it comes up for review in three years’ time.
The revised bill is now set to return to parliament for final votes before it goes into law.
