At the Agriculture Council meeting in Brussels on Monday 26 May, Luxembourg and Austria, supported by Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, all called for the introduction of simplification measures for the regulation aimed at preventing the import into the EU of agricultural products that encourage deforestation.
Germany also supported the request made by these countries during the EU Council debate.
In view of the considerable complexity of the provisions of this regulation, and in order to enable farmers, foresters and the competent authorities to meet their obligations, the entry into force of the regulation has been postponed until 30 December 2025 for multinationals and until the end of June 2026 for SMEs (see EUROPE 13538/1).
However, the requirements imposed on farmers and foresters are deemed too onerous. The above-mentioned countries have therefore put forward a number of simplification proposals:
- define countries or regions who are not at significant risk of deforestation. For these, operators would not be required to record the geolocation of agricultural or forest areas used and the competent authorities would not be required to carry out checks on products from these areas, provided that national laws and practices effectively limit the risks of deforestation and forest degradation;
- in these countries or regions where there is a negligible or insignificant risk, allow the introduction of a regulated compensation mechanism. This would only be applicable outside areas of primary or protected forests with a high biodiversity value, thereby enabling the felling of trees to be offset by certified reforestation of an equivalent area in the same country;
- introduce the possibility of carrying out checks on the basis of a risk analysis, without imposing a minimum number;
- reduce reporting and documentation requirements to the strict minimum (for example, a simple declaration of surface area).
Pending the European Commission’s proposals, these countries believe it would be advisable to postpone the date of application of the regulation once again, until 30 December 2026.
On the contrary, the French and Spanish delegations felt that the text should enter into force on the date agreed in the text, while also recognising the need to simplify the rules as much as possible.
Jessika Roswall, European Commissioner for Environment, noted the simplification measures that were already underway (see EUROPE 13623/8, 13646/7). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)