Lawmakers in the European Parliament voted 402 – 250 on Wednesday to delay and simplify the 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, and to review the impact of the law early next year for potential further simplification, even before it will come into force.
Parliament’s adopted position on the EUDR changes will form the basis of its negotiating mandate in upcoming negotiations with the EU Council, and closely mirrors the Council’s own position, making the passage of the delay and simplification measures likely.
The EUDR had initially been set to come into force at the end of 2024, but was delayed by a year at the request of the Commission to give companies more time to prepare for its compliance obligations. The new delay would push the implementation of the law back to the end of 2026 for large companies, and to mid-2027 for smaller operators.
The EUDR was initially introduced by the EU Commission in November 2021, with proposals 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 EUDR’s rules, companies that want to place relevant products on the EU market, or export them, will face mandatory due diligence obligations, 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.
In September 2025, the Commission considered proposing a second one-year delay due to concerns that IT systems currently in place will not be sufficient to handle the data load created by the new regulation. In October, however, the Commission’s formal proposal retained plans to have the EUDR enter into force at the end of this year, but introduced a six-month enforcement grace period, and gave small enterprises until the end of 2026 to begin complying with the regulation.
The Commission’s new proposal also introduced a series of simplification measures into the EUDR regulation, shifting the focus of reporting obligations to the operators that actually place the relevant EUDR products on the market, while downstream operators such as retailers or manufacturers would no longer be obliged to submit due diligence statements, requiring only one submission, instead of multiple ones, in the EUDR IT system across the supply chain. For micro and small primary operators, the Commission’s new proposal reduced their obligation to submit only a simple, one-off declaration in the EUDR IT system, while if the information is already available, the operators would not have to take any action in the IT System themselves, replacing the previous need for regular submissions of due diligence statements.
Under the new positions adopted by the EU Parliament and Council, however, the new anti-deforestation law will be pushed out for another year. Additionally, both groups’ positions call on the Commission to carry out a new simplification review of the EUDR by the end of April 2026 – even before the newly proposed implementation dates – to evaluate the administrative burden and impact of the regulation, which could open the EUDR to even further changes.
Left of center political groups in the Parliament criticized the outcome of the vote, noting that it resulted from an alliance between the centrist EPP party, the largest in the Parliament, and far-right parties. A similar alliance recently resulted in an agreement to dramatically cut back the EU’s key sustainability reporting and due diligence laws.
In a statement released after the vote, Delara Burkhardt, lead negotiator on the EU Deforestation Regulation for the S&D Group, called “The EPP’s alignment with the far right” on the changes to the EUDR “deeply worrying,” noting that the EPP rejected a compromise offer from the party.
Burkhardt added:
“The EPP claims they want to cut red tape. In reality, their proposals do the opposite: a review of the regulation before it even applies to just a single company creates a limbo and maximum planning uncertainty. We want a European Union where businesses can rely on stability and predictability. Many large companies are already willing to do more for forest protection. They are now being held back.”
Several major companies in the sectors targeted by the EUDR have also warned against further delays and changes to the law which they said would introduce new uncertainties for companies, and unfairly punish businesses which had already invested in systems to comply with the new regulations.
