The European Commission\u2019s sudden plan to delay \u2013 yet again \u2013 a landmark law banning imports linked to deforestation is officially being blamed on an overloaded IT system. But many just see a familiar political game in play.<\/p>\n
The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires EU importers of cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, timber and derivatives to prove their supply chains are deforestation-free.<\/p>\n
Enforcement was already pushed back<\/a> last year to December 2025, with the Commission arguing that more time was needed to ensure that countries and companies were prepared. Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall said on Tuesday that the Commission is considering a further one-year delay in a letter to MEPs and the Council\u2019s Presidency.<\/p>\n An IT glitch?<\/p>\n The Commission insists the issue is purely operational.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about an IT issue (\u2026) in the context of a strong commitment from the Commissioner to the objectives of the EUDR,\u201d a senior EU official told reporters at a technical briefing, stressing that the errors could not have been foreseen in a \u201cfirst-of-a-kind\u201d system that was only deployed last year.<\/p>\n Questions deemed \u201ctoo political\u201d were ruled out of order at the briefing.<\/p>\n But Commissioner Roswall herself added fuel to the fire when speaking at the Council.<\/p>\n While she insisted her proposal was limited to a one-year delay to fix the IT problems, she also said that she would hold discussions with ministers and the European Parliament \u201con the different needs when it comes to simplification,\u201d\u00a0without ruling out reopening the regulation.<\/p>\n A senior official later back-pedalled, stressing that she had been speaking \u201cabout simplification more generally\u201d and not the EUDR specifically.<\/p>\n Two diplomatic sources confirmed that the IT platform developed to upload data proving that commodities are not sourced from deforested land had been a persistent concern. One of them blamed a lack of action from the Commission and EU member states in addressing such issues. The other pointed out that the problems had not been discussed in recent times.<\/p>\n Politics at the forefront<\/p>\n The news was hailed as a victory by the centre-right EPP, which already attempted last year<\/a> to reopen the rules and exempt EU countries from the requirements. This time, they vowed<\/a> to do the same.<\/p>\n Pascal Canfin, Renew\u2019s negotiator on EUDR, remained sceptical of the Commission\u2019s spin.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are two options: that this is a real technical problem \u2013 in which case it is deplorable that the Commission, three years after [adopting] the text, still has such issues,\u201d he told Euractiv.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second option is that this is just a pretext,\u201d he added, pointing to the EU-US trade agreement signed last month.<\/p>\n The joint statement<\/a> issued by Brussels and Washington labels the US as posing \u201cnegligible risk to global deforestation\u201d and commits Brussels to address the concerns of American producers and exporters.<\/p>\n Green MEP Marie Toussaint called the IT explanation an \u201cinsult to democrats\u201d and all the more shocking, she said, on the day a deal was signed with Indonesia<\/a>. \u201cAfter bowing to Donald Trump, is Ursula von der Leyen ready to sacrifice the European model to all foreign whims?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Socialist MEP Delara Burkhardt raised questions over whether Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was \u201cgiving in to Washington\u2019s demands for deregulation in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n A member state source suggested that an announcement on the same day as the Indonesia deal may be a \u201cdistraction\u201d from US pressure.<\/p>\n Washington has repeatedly pressed<\/a> Brussels to postpone the rules, notably under pressure from the American Forest and Paper Association. A document on trade barriers published by the Trump administration in March<\/a> also took aim at the EUDR, claiming that the US would ensure that exports are not disadvantaged.<\/p>\n Roswall rejected those accusations, insisting that trade talks have nothing to do with the decision.<\/p>\n (adm, aw)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission\u2019s sudden plan to delay \u2013 yet again \u2013 a landmark law banning imports linked to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-47442","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\/47442","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=47442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}