Stricter rules to protect forests should actually apply to products such as cocoa and wood in the EU. However, there was great criticism of the project, and now the EU Commission is reacting.
After months of criticism of an EU law to protect the rainforest, the EU Commission wants to postpone the project for a year. In view of feedback on the status of preparations, the parties concerned should be given twelve months more time. If the EU Parliament and member states agree to the proposal, the law would come into force on December 30, 2025 for large companies and on June 30, 2026 for micro and small companies, the authority in Brussels said.
Rainforest Protection Act
According to the regulation, products such as coffee, wood, soy, cocoa and palm oil may only be sold in the EU if no forests have been cleared after 2020. This is also intended to significantly reduce deforestation of the rainforest, for example in the South American Amazon region.
Specifically, companies will in future have to submit a due diligence declaration that no forest was cleared or damaged for their product after December 31, 2020. Anyone who does not comply with the regulations must expect high penalties of at least four percent of their annual turnover in the EU.
Many called for a postponement
There was criticism of the project from business and across party lines. Accordingly, many reacted positively to the announcement. The CSU politician and chairman of the group of the center-right EPP alliance in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, sees the postponement as a success for his party. A bureaucratic monster was prevented.
But the Greens and the FDP had also spoken out against the project in its planned form. Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) has been critical for months and called for more time for implementation. He welcomed the Commission’s proposal now presented and said: “We will examine in detail whether these proposals can be implemented in a practical manner.” The deputy FDP parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Carina Konrad, had also repeatedly expressed concerns.
The situation is similar for many companies. Forest owners, farmers and also companies such as car suppliers would be affected, would have to comply with new reporting requirements and are critical of the regulation.
Criticism from the EU Parliament
Unlike her party colleague Özdemir, MEP Anna Cavazzini assesses the project. She described the planned postponement as a tragedy that occurred in the context of the largest forest destruction in recent years on the Latin American continent. This is a frontal attack on EU climate policy. The SPD MEP Delara Burkhardt said that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had barely started her second term in office when she started working on environmental policy. Social Democrats would do everything to ensure that conservatives around the CDU and CSU did not use the procedure to weaken the law.
Environmental organizations also expressed vehement criticism. The WWF said deforestation is the second largest source of CO2 after industry. “Ursula von der Leyen could just as easily have wielded the chainsaw herself,” said Sébastian Risso from Greenpeace. People in Europe don’t want products made from deforestation on their supermarket shelves, but that’s exactly what the delay will give them.
Source: Stern
