The last attempt of the European Commission to simplify the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) comes closer to becoming a reality today, although not quite as was initially planned. The European Parliament adopted today its position on the proposal, endorsing a broad 12 month delay of the EUDR (i.e. 30 December 2026) – as opposed to a targeted delay of the original proposal – and 18 months for the micro and small operators (i.e. 30 June 2027) as well as further simplification measures for micro and small operators.

The Parliament’s position follows closely the Council’s proposal, adopted on 19 November. Both co-legislators are removing the grace period for sanctions and enforcement originally proposed by the European Commission. Other amendments include:

• due diligence statement would remain the obligation on the operators first placing the product on the market,

• downstream operators and traders would no longer be required to submit separate due diligence statements, and
• a one-off and simplified declaration will be needed for micro and small operators.

Member States were keen to ensure that further simplification measures of the EUDR would be envisioned. As such, they are calling on the European Commission to carry out a simplification review by 30 April 2026, assessing the law’s impact and administrative burden on operators, particularly small and micro operators, with the possibility of introducing an accompanying legislative proposal. The Parliament seconds the review clause.

What does this mean?

This development has a far lasting impact than being a simplification instrument. This is an unprecedented situation where a EU law is postponed twice in a year’s time. The EUDR, was delayed already once in a dramatic fashion at the end of 2024, provided that many technical and administrative requirements were not ready in time for the original implementation deadline.

What’s more, today’s vote demonstrated the largest political party’s willingness to break the cordon sanitaire, in order to gather enough supporting votes for amendments. This marks the second example – most likely one of many to come – following the vote in Parliament of the Omnibus I proposal, a few weeks ago. This opens the way for even more similar compromises, notably, but not limited to, sustainability policies.

More importantly, this revision opens the way for another legislative revision, which could be envisaged in less than 6 months from now, marking a never-ending exercise that co-legislators, governments and companies must prepare for. The question arises then: would this be an exceptional situation, or a trend setter for other EU policies? Although it’s too soon to tell, it appears more likely to be the latter, setting a new precedence for the way EU policies will be carried out in the short to medium term.  This is something the Commission will now need to cautiously consider prior to releasing new amendment or simplification proposals.

Companies must now be prepared for every likely scenario in their compliance strategies with EU laws, provided that it could become more ‘normal’ for costly compliance exercises to end up becoming futile after such drastic legislative changes. Ultimately, it cannot be predicted with certainty, but companies should start showing flexibility in their compliance efforts. The case with the EUDR shows that large companies who invested in their compliance strategies being ready for the end of 2025 implementation, will now end up being penalized, in such a short period of time.

Equally, there is no certainty about what comes next, due to a foreseen simplification review. A new EUDR amendment could risk creating yet another debate whereby policy makers, governments and companies would change their focus to negotiating, and interpreting the effect of any future changes, instead of actually starting to implement the law. This will inevitably lead to a lack of engagement in what is necessary to be done, in creating the expertise, and in developing knowledge to implement the law.

What will happen now?

Trilogue negotiations will now need to take place in the coming two weeks. Given the proximity of both the Parliament’s and Council’s positions, it is very likely that an agreement will be easy to reach, in order to align the final text of the revision.

The Europe Parliament will need to endorse the final revision at the latest by the week of 15 December, followed by – exceptionally – a written approval by the Council, provided the limitation in time.

Only once the proposed revision is published in the Official Journal of the EU can the law become official and consequently the EUDR’s implementation is officially delayed.