EU delays ban on imports linked to deforestation

Laws aiming to restrict the use of products derived from deforested land appear to be pushed back further after the European Commission proposed a delay to the new regulations, which were initially scheduled to take effect at the end of last year.

Many businesses have claimed that the new rules would create more red tape and unhelpful regulations, a criticism echoed by some of the European Union's external trading partners.

Announcing another delay to the EU Deforestation Regulation, Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall told reporters that the surge of information resulting from the introduction of the new rules at the start of next year would have caused data management problems, explaining that " (we) still cannot believe that we can really get this without disruption for our businesses … we need the time to combat the risk with the load of information in the IT system".

An EU spokesperson told the Euronews website that "we have to step back and see how we can address the risks, finding the right balance between the obligations of the economic operators and the IT system".

The new regulations would have targeted industries such as palm oil and beef production, which are often linked to deforestation, and would require companies to make specific efforts to ensure that issues caused by forest cutting are not present in their supply chain. However, many companies had complained that it was often difficult to find such information.

Roswall said the legislation as it exists now could be "simplified", but rejected the suggestion that the change of heart was linked to recently concluded trade talks with Indonesia — the world's leading producer of palm oil — or because of complaints from trading partners such as Japan or Malaysia.

The right-of-center European People's Party bloc in the European Parliament, which was one of the main proponents of the legislation's initial delay, claimed that the increased regulatory burden would be too much for many smaller companies in the supply chain to handle.

The party's environment spokesman, Peter Liese, said the aim of stopping deforestation was "the right one, but a bureaucratic monster weakens the acceptance of European environmental policy".

Kathleen Van Brempt of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats called the delay "unbelievable … bad for business. Bad for investment. Bad for the planet."