EU Commission's proposed 12-month delay for EUDR implementation "inevitable", says AIC
The European Commission plans to delay the implementation of its European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), a move which the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) has described as "inevitable" given a lack of clarity over the policy.
Yesterday (2 October) the Commission announced it was proposing to defer the compliance date for large companies by 12 months to 30 December 2025, and for smaller companies to 30 June 2026.
The proposal now needs approval from both the European Parliament and the Council to take effect.
The regulation, which aims to tackle deforestation and forest degradation linked to supply chains, has faced criticism due to the lack of legal clarity.
The delay is expected to provide more time for businesses to align with the requirements, while also allowing the Commission to offer further guidance through updated FAQs and a country risk benchmarking system.
James McCulloch, AIC's Head of Animal Feed, said: "AIC, alongside our European associations COCERAL and FEFAC, support the goal of eradicating deforestation and forest degradation.
"We fully recognise the need to preserve forests while at the same time securing supplies of sustainable raw materials to feed people.
"AIC also recognises the huge amount of resource that importers have committed to comply by the due date, however, the severe lack of legal clarity from the EU Commission presented many challenges for the whole sector.
"On balance, AIC supported the call from our EU associations for a delay of the entry into force. We will now be working hard to ensure that the legislation in the EU is fit for purpose, including how it will apply in Northern Ireland.
"We also will need to consider how the UK’s version of the legislation - the UK Forest Risk Commodity Regulation (UKFRC) - will be implemented and look forward to working with the new Government to achieve this."
The EU Commission has also published additional guidance documents. Click below for the latest information from the Commission.
- Press release
- Guidance
- Proposal for a Regulation amending Deforestation Regulation as regards the date of application
- Third edition of FAQs
- Strategic Framework for Cooperation
- SME factsheet
- Mythbuster
Author
Oli Hill
As Head of Communications, Oli creates and oversees the content published on AIC's website, emails, Member briefings, print publications, and social media. A qualified multimedia journalist, he previously spent six years working at Farmers Weekly magazine as a Senior Reporter on the arable team, and latterly as Community Editor. More recently he was Communications Manager at Red Tractor.