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EU Parliament Demands Further Changes to Deforestation Rules

(Bloomberg) -- The European Parliament demanded further changes to a landmark law to tackle global deforestation, adding complications to a plan to delay the controversial rules before they take effect later this year.

The European Union’s assembly on Thursday endorsed amendments put forward by its biggest political group, the European People’s Party, to soften the regulation aimed at curbing forest clearance in nations that send products such as coffee, cocoa, soy and beef to the bloc. The demands are in addition to a 12-month delay proposed by the European Commission and backed by member states in the EU Council as well as the EPP. 

The result of the vote sets into motion a longer process to modify the regulation, which was originally slated to take effect on Dec. 30. It necessitates negotiations between representatives of the Council, Parliament and the EU Commission to iron out the final shape of the measure. 

If they fail to reach an agreement before the deadline, the EU Deforestation Regulation risks being implemented without any changes at all. The EPP has said it was convinced a deal on an updated version of the regulation could be reached in time. 

“Postponement alone is not enough,” EPP lawmaker Christine Schneider told a press conference in Brussels after the vote, saying her group wanted to ease the bureaucratic burden of the regulation. However, “the important thing for us is postponing for one year and the EPP will not endanger the postponement,” Schneider said.

The measure, known as EUDR, necessitates complex tracking systems, with importers required to collect precise data to identify the plots of land where the goods were grown. Companies must ensure the products they bring in weren’t made on areas deforested or degraded after 2020.

Commodity-producing countries from Brazil to Indonesia have fiercely opposed the EU push to prevent deforestation on concern it will hurt smallholder farmers and curtail key exports. While environmental activists in the bloc defended the law, the green lawmakers in Parliament were in favor of the commission’s plan last month to provide extra time for parties to get ready. 

In the vote in Brussels, the EPP and its allies mustered enough votes to push through not only the delay but also other concessions not foreseen by the commission. The amendments sought by the political group included a provision to exempt countries without deforestation. 

Still, the changes requested by the EPP were scaled down just before the vote. The group withdrew some amendments, including a proposal to make only the company placing the product on the market responsible for proving it is deforestation-free, following a pledge by the European Commission to address concerns of the lawmakers.

Environmental rights group Earthsight’s policy lead Fyfe Strachan called the move a “massive blow.” The EPP’s introduction of a new loophole for products from ‘no-risk’ countries “undermines the integrity of the law and will make it dramatically harder to enforce,” Strachan said in a press statement.

The European Cocoa Association had asked Parliament to reject the amendments and adopt the proposal for delay to give its members legal and commercial certainty, Matthijs de Meer, the group’s director for EU Affairs & Sustainability, said in a statement. “To avoid severe supply chain and business disruptions, we now urge the co-legislators to finalize negotiations rapidly to not jeopardize the one-year delay for which there is broad support in both Parliament and Council.”

--With assistance from Mumbi Gitau.

(Updates with reaction from EPP, environmental group and European Cocoa Association.)

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