{"id":108230,"date":"2025-10-31T16:50:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/108230\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T16:50:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:50:17","slug":"czech-minister-slams-commissions-chaotic-steps-in-deforestation-rules-overhaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/108230\/","title":{"rendered":"Czech minister slams Commission\u2019s ‘chaotic steps’ in deforestation rules overhaul"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Commission\u2019s bid to simplify the EU\u2019s deforestation rules is turning out to be anything but simple.<\/p>\n

After weeks of behind-closed-doors talks with diplomats and MEPs, the Commission last week unveiled its plan to tweak the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), easing compliance for EU farmers and delaying enforcement for small businesses.<\/p>\n

But several governments, including Czechia, are baffled by what they see as a policy U-turn. They expected the Commission to postpone the rules by a whole year to fix the EUDR\u2019s IT system.\u00a0Czech Agriculture Minister Marek V\u00fdborn\u00fd told Euractiv he was blindsided by the decision not to postpone the rules.<\/p>\n

Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall had previously floated that idea, and some EU officials had thought it was a done deal.<\/p>\n

In an interview on Monday in Luxembourg, V\u00fdborn\u00fd said the Commission\u2019s actions offer neither \u201cstability nor foreseeability\u201d to countries and companies preparing for the new rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe European Commission is taking very chaotic steps and chaotic statements,\u201d V\u00fdborn\u00fd said.<\/p>\n

V\u00fdborn\u00fd said he\u2019s frustrated by the Commission\u2019s about-face. After Roswall\u2019s earlier comments<\/a>, he told small sawmills in September to expect a one-year delay.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can imagine that I feel like a fool when I talk to the guys [sawmills] now after what happened,\u201d V\u00fdborn\u00fd said.<\/p>\n

According to V\u00fdborn\u00fd, Roswall\u2019s proposal to delay for 1 year fell through due to resistance from other Commissioners. As Euractiv reported, Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera had been reluctant to endorse the plans.<\/p>\n

Czech Commissioner Jozef S\u00edkela, in charge of development and international partnerships, had supported the one-year delay plan, according to V\u00fdborn\u00fd.<\/p>\n

Czechia is now among the countries pushing for a broader delay until 2027. Latvia, Bulgaria, Estonia, and Poland are also advocating for the delay, and for EU countries to be classified as \u201cno-risk\u201d for deforestation, effectively exempting them from checks.<\/p>\n

In addition to a note<\/a> from Latvia, Prague has drafted a proposal, seen by Euractiv, amending entry into force dates to mid-2027. It adds that a comprehensive review of EUDR is needed, which is not possible \u201cgiven the extremely limited time available.\u201d<\/p>\n

EU countries and the Parliament have little room to make changes to the Commission\u2019s proposal before a 15 December deadline, the last Strasbourg plenary of the year.<\/p>\n

The Czech proposal will be presented on Monday to the Danish Presidency and the European Commission.<\/p>\n

V\u00fdborn\u00fd now hopes to rally support from Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen, whom he\u2019s meeting tonight at a dinner of EPP ministers in Luxembourg,\u00a0MEPs, and fellow member states.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s careful optimism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer also said on Monday that he is not satisfied with the Commission\u2019s proposal. Austria\u2019s Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig similarly slammed it as a \u201cbitter disappointment,\u201d saying the Commission is presenting countries with a \u201ctake it or leave it\u201d situation.<\/p>\n

The Danish Presidency will seek guidance from EU ambassadors on Wednesday, a diplomat told Euractiv, and a negotiating mandate could follow as early as next week. Time to negotiate, indeed, is running short. But the diplomat warned the tight timeline leaves \u201cno time for substantial negotiations\u201d with Parliament.<\/p>\n

Maria Simon Arboleas contributed to the reporting<\/p>\n

(adm, cm)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission\u2019s bid to simplify the EU\u2019s deforestation rules is turning out to be anything but simple.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-108230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}