{"id":178073,"date":"2025-10-03T22:47:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T22:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/178073\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T22:47:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T22:47:17","slug":"dont-delay-eu-deforestation-rules-food-giants-tell-brussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/178073\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t delay EU deforestation rules, food giants tell Brussels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Global food companies Ferrero, Mars and Nestl\u00e9, together with environmental groups, have urged the European Commission not to use IT issues as a pretext to reopen, delay or tweak the EU\u2019s deforestation rules (EUDR), according to a letter<\/a> sent on Thursday to the EU\u2019s environment chief, Jessika Roswall.<\/p>\n

The coalition of 19 \u2013 including food producers, environmental and conservation NGOs, and sustainable certification schemes \u2013 warned that the delay<\/a> announced last week by the Commission, which would push enforcement back to December 2026, \u201cputs at risk the preservation of forests worldwide\u201d and also \u201cundermines trust in Europe\u2019s regulatory commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Roswall told<\/a> Euractiv that there is still no clear timeline for when the proposal to delay the rules would be officially tabled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe deeply regret that a technical IT issue risks jeopardising the EUDR\u2019s core objectives and entry into force, three months before the implementation deadline for companies,\u201d the letter stated.<\/p>\n

The signatories stressed that companies have already been \u201cactively preparing and investing in compliance.\u201d \u201cThese efforts have been made in good faith that the European legislative framework and timeline were reliable,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Grace periods instead of delay<\/p>\n

Rather than postponing the law, the coalition argued that the Commission should grant grace periods of up to six months and suspend fines if companies face technical obstacles.<\/p>\n

They warned that reopening the legislation would trigger fresh negotiations with the Council and Parliament, where lawmakers are expected to push for additional changes<\/a> \u2013 notably to exempt EU foresters and farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge the European Commission to provide clarity on its intended next steps as soon as possible to avoid additional uncertainty. Companies need to know what to prepare for, and by when,\u201d the letter continued.<\/p>\n

As first reported<\/a> by Euractiv, Nestl\u00e9 and fellow food giant Mondel\u0113z had been at odds over the implementation of the EUDR earlier this year, with the latter pushing for a one-year delay.<\/p>\n

(adm, aw)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Global food companies Ferrero, Mars and Nestl\u00e9, together with environmental groups, have urged the European Commission not to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-178073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}