Brussels, Belgium - Today, the European Parliament, driven by the European People’s Party (EPP), voted for amendments to substantially weaken the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) de facto deregulating and undermining one of the EU’s landmark environmental laws. By introducing a category of “no risk” countries, the EPP and its allies have effectively voted to enable further forest destruction both within and outside of Europe. 

The move undermines the efforts of forward-thinking companies that have invested in deforestation-free supply chains to comply with EUDR requirements in time for its application on 30 December 2024. More than 50 companies have warned that such a weakening would jeopardise their investments, disrupt compliance efforts, undermine much-needed regulatory certainty, fail to create a level playing field and ultimately endanger their competitiveness. 

“This is a shameful moment for the EPP, and a betrayal of its commitments to European citizens, forward-looking businesses, the world’s forests, and our climate. Just last year, the EPP overwhelmingly supported the EUDR - led by a rapporteur from their own ranks. Today, they aligned with extreme right-wing factions, putting political posturing over climate action, opening the gates for deregulation whilst casting aside pleas of European citizens and responsible companies to protect our forests,” said Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, Forests Policy Manager at WWF European Policy Office.

“With this law becoming one big loophole, we’re now calling on President Von der Leyen to put an end to this carnage and protect her Green Deal legacy by withdrawing her proposal to delay EUDR implementation. This is the only responsible course of action that will allow the EUDR to fulfill its purpose and protect the world’s forests from exploitation.”

The EUDR had been adopted in 2023 after a 2 year policy-making process and with support from the EPP group, and it entered into force in June last year, with full application due by 30 December 2024. Following the proposal by the Commission to delay the implementation by 12 months in an ‘emergency procedure’, EPP submitted 15 amendments entirely hollowing out the law, the most damaging of which were adopted with the support of the far right groups. 

This mainly includes the introduction of “no-risk” countries (including all EU Member States) where companies are practically exempt from critical checks, facing them on average only once in 1000 years - opening the door for far reaching abuse. 

The impact of this vote goes beyond environmental setbacks: it calls into question the validity of democratic policy-making at EU level, and the reliability of the European Parliament. In 2020, more than 1.2 million citizens had called for strong deforestation regulation.

“Today’s decision also undermines voters’ trust in EU policy-making as a whole - and sends a shameful signal on the climate agenda of the new European Parliament, during the ongoing climate negotiations in Baku!” concluded Schulmeister-Oldenhove. 

WWF now calls on Commission President von der Leyen to withdraw her proposal to delay the EUDR implementation.