Deforestation Law Delay Creates Multiple Risks to the European Union
Mighty Earth Statement in Response to the announcement by European Commission President to delay implementation of the EUDR
October 3, 2024
Mighty Earth is deeply dismayed by the announcement made on Wednesday, October 2, that the European Commission plans to delay full enforcement of the groundbreaking EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) until December 30, 2025. We strongly urge the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen to reassess this decision and uphold timely implementation of the law.
The proposed delay, which will only be possible through a new “tag on” regulation, simultaneously sets in motion multiple risks to the EU, its citizens and the climate. These include undermining the efficacy of the Regulation itself, holding back Europe’s wider Green Deal agenda, damaging the reputation and standing of the EU with other governments (as well as with private sector and civil society actors), and creating a dangerous precedent for the overall integrity of EU policymaking. Perhaps most egregiously, it also creates a grave threat to the world’s forests, already under severe pressure, worsening a planetary Nature and climate emergency from which people and wildlife in the EU and around the world are already suffering.
In its announcement, the Commission explained that implementation of the EUDR would be delayed by twelve months, following consultations with a number of other governments. This follows heavy pressure from some countries and industry association lobbyists to delay or even abandon the law.
Dr Julian Oram from Mighty Earth: “Delaying the EU’s zero deforestation law by just one year is a catastrophe and will result in the added destruction of over 200,000 hectares of precious forests worldwide due to the EU’s thirst for major forest-risk commodities like coffee, chocolate, beef, palm oil and soybeans.”
A delay to enforce a law that was first published in draft form in 2020 – and finalised nearly two years ago through the EU’s legislative process, involving the Commission, European Parliament, and European Council (representing member states) – is, in itself, an inexcusable dereliction of legal duty. It betrays the multiple millions of euros and tens of thousands of hours of work spent by law-abiding companies, third party governments, farmers, foresters, and others in preparation for full EUDR readiness by the prescribed implementation date of December 30, 2024. Polling across EU member states also showed the law also had strong backing from EU citizens.
By delaying implementation of EUDR, the Commission is pandering to those who have made the least effort to be prepared for EUDR, and to those who are the most hostile to action designed to rid deforestation from EU consumer good supply chains. This is exactly the opposite of the sort of leadership that the Commission President and Member State governments should be showing at a time of ever worsening Nature and climate crises.
But our dismay is deepened by the multiple additional aftershocks this disastrous action could trigger.
First, by proposing a new Regulation to delay implementation of the existing one, the door is potentially ajar for more substantive meddling by the Parliament and/or Council. This endangers the integrity of the Regulation itself, and could, ultimately, limit its efficacy in combatting commodity-driven deforestation linked to EU markets.
More broadly, the move to delay EUDR sets alarm bells ringing in relation to other critical pillars of the EU Green Deal agenda, which could soon also find themselves under attack. Beyond this, the uncertainty and instability cascading from a decision to delay EUDR creates a further outward ripple effect, by undermining the EU’s law-making process, in which the three key institutions propose, scrutinise, debate, consult upon, re-draft and negotiate new Regulations. If, at the end of this long and often laboured process, the substance of what comes out and is signed into law turns out to be a castle made of sand, it throws into question the integrity of the EU’s entire decision-making architecture.
Understandably, this also undermines political trust and confidence in the EU, its institutions, and its Member State governments amongst trading partners, who would be forgiven for not taking too seriously the EU’s commitment to enacting and enforcing future laws designed to protect the environment; or indeed human rights, labour rights, or consumers.
Tragically, this is all happening at a time when the world’s forests – and those who depend upon them – are under unprecedented attack. Aside from contributing to a permanent change to ecosystems critical to planetary health, the destruction of forests is decimating wildlife habitats, fuelling the mass extinction of species, the further destabilising the world’s climate. This is leading to ever worsening storms, floods, droughts and fires, as seen recently across Europe as well as in Nepal, the USA, Vietnam, and elsewhere.
In sum, what has been presented as a minor technical implementation delay to a somewhat complicated law is in fact a devastating decision with wide ranging and profoundly negative ramifications for the EU, as well as the rest of the world. As such, we urge the leadership of the European Commission to urgently reassess this proposal, and proceed without delay to full implementation and enforcement of this vital law.
