Most of the Member States backed a postponement of the Regulation aimed at combating imported deforestation, during an exchange between the Member States’ permanent representatives to the EU on Wednesday 15 October.
According to the European Commission, the IT system will not be ready to receive due diligence statements from stakeholders by the planned date of entry into force of the Regulation at the end of December (see EUROPE 13715/5).
As well as supporting the postponement, a majority of Member States called for further simplification of the Regulation. The European Commission, for its part, replied that it was examining ways of reducing the administrative burden, while preserving the integrity of the Regulation’s objective.
At the end of 2024, the Council of the EU agreed to a one-year postponement without changing the text. This position prevented any further changes, despite amendments tabled by the EPP and the far right (see EUROPE 13530/1). In particular, there was talk of creating a category of ‘zero-risk’ countries, which would be exempt from declarations deemed too burdensome.
This time, with a majority of countries in favour of simplification, the text is unlikely to remain unscathed if the European Commission proposes postponing it.
The S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left Groups urged the Commission not to postpone it (see EUROPE 13725/15) and asked the Commission to prove the IT failures.
Osapience and Sustainia, two companies familiar with the IT system, considered that technical solutions existed to avoid the one-year postponement, during a ‘webinar’ organised by Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, French) and Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (Renew Europe, Dutch) on Wednesday 15 October.
According to them, operators will have to reduce the volume of data by decreasing the frequency with which declarations are generated, group several products together in a declaration and compress geographical data.
According to Sustainia, the Commission should implement the Regulation gradually, starting with the major operators, before extending it to manufacturers and brands. Above all, it should correct the flaws as they occur and publish a scalability plan.
The two MEPs intend to take these conclusions to the European Commission and the Member States. Around 400 people were connected, including economic operators, consultancies, members of the European Parliament and members of the European Commission. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)