“EUDR saga: Parliament votes to undermine enforcement and EU credibility”

Today’s European Parliament vote adopting an objection to the European Commission’s country benchmarking system under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) represents an irresponsible move against one of the EU’s flagship environmental laws.

The objection, tabled by MEP Alexander Bernhuber (EPP), calls into question the risk classification criteria that are essential for the law’s implementation, by advocating for the introduction of a category of “insignificant or negligible risk” - absent from the legal text of the EUDR. This would require a revision of the law, which would further delay the application, cause more burden for companies that have already set up systems, and undermine the legal certainty that businesses urgently need. It would also weaken the EU’s ability to act decisively on climate and biodiversity loss and human rights violations…

The vote comes at a time when the European Environment Agency warns of an above-average wildfire season, with blazes already underway in Italy and across Southern Europe, and sky-rocketing economic losses from weather- and climate-related extremes. Intact forests are one of our best lines of defence against escalating climate impacts. …