Brussels – European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has condemned the world’s forests to another year of destruction as a result of European consumption, by proposing to delay the application of the EU’s landmark deforestation regulation (EUDR). The law will now apply as of 30 December 2025 for large companies and 30 June 2026 for micro and small enterprises, twelve months later than initially planned for each category.
In its most recent Global Forest Resources Assessment (2015-2020), the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation found that an area of forest roughly the size of Portugal – 10 million hectares – is cut down each year.
The EUDR, one of the most significant achievements of president von der Leyen’s first term, offers Europe a means of breaking away from a model of production and consumption that fuels climate breakdown and nature destruction, and which threatens human rights. But the Commission made glacial progress on issuing guidance and technical documents for the implementation of the law and now, with von der Leyen’s announcement, has officially caved in to pressure from companies and governments who are hostile to the law.
Greenpeace EU forest policy director Sébastien Risso said: “Ursula von der Leyen might as well have wielded the chainsaw herself. People in Europe don’t want deforestation products on their supermarket shelves but that’s what this delay will give them, for another twelve months. The EUDR was agreed in December 2022, and it’s inexcusable that the Commission took so long to issue the supporting documents for the implementation of the law. The world’s forests urgently need the protection that this law offers.”
Contacts:
Sébastien Risso, Greenpeace EU forest policy director: +32 (0)496 127009, [email protected]
Greenpeace EU press desk: +32 (0)2 274 1911, [email protected]
This press comment is also available on: www.greenpeace.eu
