The European Commission announced a series of measures aimed at simplifying the application of its EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), a new law aimed at ensuring that products imported to or exported from EU markets no longer contribute to deforestation and forest degradation globally.

The EUDR was initially introduced by the EU Commission in November 2021, with measures aimed at effectively banning deforestation-linked products on the EU market, and establishing strong compliance requirements for companies providing or utilizing key commodities and products such as palm oil, beef, timber, coffee, cocoa, rubber and soy, in addition to some of their derived products, such as leather, chocolate, tires, or furniture.

Under the new rules, companies that want to place relevant products on the EU market, or export them, will face mandatory due diligence rules, including a requirement to trace the products back to the plot of land where it was produced, to prove that the products were produced on land that was not subject to deforestation after 2020, and are compliant with all relevant applicable laws in force in the country of production.

The regulation entered into effect in June 2023, and was set to become applicable at the end of 2024 for large companies, and June 2025 for micro- and small enterprises, although in October 2024 the EU Commission introduced a one-year implementation delay, noting that “several global partners have repeatedly expressed concerns about their state of preparedness,” and adding that even within the EU, “the state of preparations amongst stakeholders in Europe is also uneven.”

The changes form part of a major simplification push in the EU, and follows the release by the Commission in January of its “Competitiveness Compass,” outlining its new roadmap aimed at boosting Europe’s productivity and global competitiveness, which included goals to reduce reporting burdens by at least 25% for all companies, and 35% for SMEs.

Among the key changes to the EUDR, the Commission said that instead of requiring companies to submit due diligence statements for every shipment or batch placed on the EU market, companies will now be allowed to submit due diligence statements annually.

Additional changes include enabling large companies to reuse existing due diligence statements when goods previously on the EU market are reimported, and allowing authorized representatives to submit due diligence statements on behalf of members of company groups. The Commission also clarified a requirement for companies to ascertain that due diligence was exercised upstream in the supply chain, enabling companies to follow a minimal obligation of collecting reference numbers of due diligence statements from their suppliers and using those references for their own statement submissions.

According to the Commission, the new measures will reduce the administrative costs of the new regulation for companies by 30%.

Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, said:

“We are committed to implementing EU rules on deforestation in a spirit of close partnership, transparency, and open dialogue. Our aim is to reduce administrative burden for companies while preserving the goals of the regulation. We will continue to work very closely with all stakeholders, to ensure that our rules deliver on reducing global deforestation and forest degradation in the least burdensome way for companies.”