(Bloomberg) -- The European Union reached a tentative deal to postpone its landmark law to tackle deforestation until the end of next year, giving global supply chains of commodities from coffee to beef more time to adapt.
An agreement reached with lawmakers on Tuesday brings a turbulent few months for one of the EU’s most far-reaching environmental plans close to an end. The law was met with widespread pushback from agricultural giants like Brazil and Indonesia, as well as EU countries such as Austria and Finland.
“We successfully postponed the implementation of the deforestation law by one year, giving European businesses, foresters and farmers the planning security they need, while protecting them from excessive bureaucracy,” said Christine Schneider, lead negotiator representing the European Parliament in the talks.
Aimed at curbing forest clearance in nations that export to the bloc, the legislation became a symbol of Europe’s environmental ambitions clashing with reality. Businesses such as chocolate makers said they needed time and money to prepare, as did nations that supply them with cocoa and other products.
In early October, the European Commission had already moved to propose delaying the rules. But the European People’s Party, the biggest group in the EU Parliament, led a push in the assembly to demand further changes, putting the delay at risk if no deal was reached before the end of this year. During the meeting on Tuesday, representatives of the parliament dropped the requirements after the commission offered assurances to update the law within a year, Schneider said in a statement.
“We ensured that the Commission will complete the online platform and the risk categorisation in due time, giving more predictability for all in the supply chain,” said Schneider, who is a member of the EPP group. “Last, but not least, an impact assessment and further simplification is to follow in the review stage for the low-risk countries or regions, giving countries an incentive to improve their forest conservation practices.”
Member states and parliament will still need to officially sign off on the deal before the end of the month, a step that is usually seen as a formality. The first step will be a vote in the European Parliament’s environment committee on Wednesday, to be followed by a plenary ballot later this month.
(Updates with lawmaker comments in third paragraph)
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