Brussels / The Hague (September 24, 2025) — The European Commission has once again proposed delaying the enforcement of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), pushing back its start date for a second year in a row. The new implementation date would be late December 2026. By postponing enforcement yet again, the EU risks undermining the credibility of the law, its reliability as a partner to commodity-producing countries and its global climate commitments.

The regulation is designed to prevent commodities linked to deforestation and forest degradation – such as coffee, cocoa, soy, beef, leather, palm oil, rubber and wood – from being sold on the EU market. The EUDR is one of the most comprehensive environmental laws ever passed, with the potential to reshape global supply chains. 

Following is a statement by Stientje van Veldhoven, Vice-President and Regional Director for Europe of World Resources Institute:

“The European Commission’s new proposal to delay the EUDR is troubling. Forest loss reached record levels in 2024, with 6.7 million hectares of tropical rainforest destroyed — an area nearly the size of Ireland. Every minute, we lose the equivalent of 18 football fields of tropical forest. At a time when Europe itself is reeling from extreme summer heatwaves and record forest loss due to devastating wildfires, postponing protections for forests sends exactly the wrong signal.

“The Commission argues that certain systems aren’t ready yet. Yet all the elements legally mandated in the regulation to support implementation — IT systems, guidance, FAQs, and benchmarking — have been in place for months. Many businesses have already invested in traceability, from using satellite monitoring to training smallholder farmers. Producer countries such as Malaysia, Ghana and Vietnam are also building national systems to support compliance. Delaying for the second time undermines companies that have proactively prepared, sending the wrong market signal thereby creating additional uncertainty for businesses. 

“Regardless of the delay, the EUDR, which already passed through the full legislative cycle in 2023, should remain as is. There is political pressure to erode the law by, for example, introducing a so-called ‘no-risk’ country category. Such a move would make the EUDR much less effective as it would undermine the due diligence system, which is at the core of the EUDR. Such a clause would create large loopholes for deforestation-linked products. Our analysis shows that exempting EU Member States or other countries from the declaration requirement would allow unscrupulous actors to launder products linked to deforestation — such as leather from Brazil — into EU supply chains.

“The EU accounts for 13–16% of global deforestation through imports, despite having just 7% of the world’s population, giving it a disproportionate responsibility.  We call on the EU Council and EU Parliament to reject this delay and move forward with the enforcement as planned. Further delay would not ease implementation challenges; it would jeopardize forests, climate goals, Europe’s credibility.”