Has the much-heralded EUDR environmental policy reached the end of the road amid fresh delays?

This week’s news emerging from Brussels that there is highly likely to be a further full-year delay to the much-heralded EUDR environmental laws is seen by many observers as a devastating blow to its prospects.

With the EU Commission’s intimations that the scheme ‘cannot be implemented without impact on businesses’ as well as its own concerns regarding the underlying IT infrastructure’s readiness, it is all pointing in a single direction – that the weight of change-averse commercial opposition now facing the project means that its chances of success are rapidly diminishing by the week.

Could this in fact spell the end for the hugely significant policy that has been widely touted as providing a global benchmark for how business, NGOs and governments can work together in seriously addressing deforestation, climate change and operating transparency, is now seriously at risk of entirely unravelling.

The centre right political parties that have used financial arguments to delay and water down EUDR’s objectives, have seen attempts to repackage it through seeking exemptions for smaller companies, as well as removing the need for annual reporting of results, which under the present proposals, would now only be every three years.

The creation of ‘low risk’ nations under its frameworks has further muddied the water, allowing significant loopholes in a piece of legislation designed to bring a level playing field, rather than allowing easy opt outs. As sector observers have noted, it is increasingly hard to see how it could in fact be implemented at all – could this latest additional year’s delay, on top of an already extended start date of December 2025, spell the end for it?

The odds are not looking great in terms of seeing how conditions on the ground would improve sufficiently to actually kick-start the initiative which many companies have already invested in heavily to bring in compliance levels expecting it to be from the start of this year.

The venture, which in itself took many years to work up in its pre-development phase, had already generously given companies effectively two years notice prior to its original anticipated start date at the end of 2024.

But owing largely to an extremely vocal right wing element of the European Parliament, the landmark policies – designed for the first time to make continental companies legally comply to having zero deforestation in their supply chains, its prospects now seem sadly reduced.

According to the EU Commission, it is now seeking consensus from the European Parliament for a second delay taking its start date to 2026 to ‘allow time to evaluate’ its IT system in light of data requirements. This does not look and seem like policy that will ever find a consensus of agreement, especially with the likes of major companies such as US-owned Mondelez International, also seeking an extra delay to its start date.

For many close to the policy, the move to delay EUDR further is a political rather than practical matter, sparked by the US government’s introduction of sweeping new tariffs, that has slapped a minimum of 15% additional taxes on imports to its country.

It’s a shockwave that is understandably hard to absorb for many companies, as they grapple with a host of other major issues including wider supply chain tests amid global conflicts in the Middle East, as well as well as the long-running war in Ukraine.

There is also the highly significant factor of parallel corporate due diligence regulations that are also now being put before the European Parliament that are set to deliver equally important human rights guarantees for farmers in supply chains, as well as ensuring delivery of wider social and environmental best practices across Europe. 

Unsurprisingly, these are also facing major pushback from conservative right wing political forces within the European Parliament, that has argued that the continent’s economies will be hit if they can’t maintain parity with America’s present positioning as a high taxing regime.  Whether that is a policy that will be persisted with is hard to predict, but many financial analysts have already highlighted the fact that it is indeed the US itself that is feeling the heat from tariffs, with companies handing over significant amounts in sums that they are footing directly from importing a wide range of goods and services, including heavily impacting the cocoa trade.

One thing is for sure, a week now seems an awfully long time not just in politics, but in world affairs in general, with major breaking incidents affecting global markets on an increasingly frequent cycle.

As for the fate of the much-lauded EUDR, its future now seems more uncertain than ever, as to suffer one delay is misfortune enough, but any further rolling-back of its well-meaning objectives may well be a delay too far…

Neill Barston, editor, Confectionery Production

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