EU Deforestation Regulation faces another delay: What you need to know
3rd December 2025
“The EU Deforestation Regulation, a landmark policy aiming to stop global deforestation caused by agricultural expansion, is facing a delay once again. A delay will give you more time to prepare and review your supply chain to make sure your products aren’t linked to recent deforestation, forest degradation or breaches of local laws in their country of origin. By updating your sourcing and procurement processes now, you can avoid costly penalties and safeguard your brand reputation when the regulation takes effect.”
The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) looks set to be postponed again, with new proposed dates of 30 December 2026 for large and medium businesses and 30 June 2027 for micro and small businesses. These dates are still subject to the EU passing necessary legislation.
We recommend that all affected businesses – if you sell cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soya, or wood and things derived from them – check frequently for updates.
What’s happening?
In yet another plot-twist to the EUDR story, the EU Parliament has voted in favour of postponement and simplification measures being made to the EUDR.
The EU Parliament is seeking changes including:
- A one-year postponement, so that the EUDR would apply to large and medium businesses from 30 December 2026 and micro and small businesses from 30 June 2027.
- Simplification of the requirements, so that only those businesses first placing the affected commodities on the EU market would have to supply a due diligence statement, not those further down the supply chain who use the product in manufacturing.
- Simplification of the requirements for certain small and micro businesses so that they only have to submit basic, one-off declarations.
These changes broadly reflect the position of the EU Council and EU Commission but, to be implemented, need to be pulled together into amending legislation in good time before the EUDR comes into force on 30 December 2025.
What you need to do
We recommend that all affected businesses – if you sell cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soya, or wood and things derived from them – check the EU websites frequently for updates.
We suggest that you continue to prepare for the coming into force of the EUDR by reviewing your supply chains and ensuring that you have systems in place to comply with its information-gathering, risk assessment and reporting requirements. While tricky, you should try to keep these systems in an adaptable form, so that they can be quickly tailored to reflect the eventual form of the EUDR.
How we can support you
We are on hand to help you prepare for the EUDR. Get in touch if you would like legal advice or assistance or need any other advice relating to compliance with Environmental Law obligations more generally.
Our people
