The European Commission is planning yet another one-year delay to enforcement of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), citing poor development and performance of the Commission’s IT system.
The postponement plan first came to light in a letter from EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall to EU co-legislators that was obtained by Euractiv. Roswall confirmed the plan with reporters yesterday, Sept. 23.
The letter said that the expected information load associated with the law may slow down the European Commission’s IT system to “unacceptable levels” or cause “disruptions.”
In the meantime, the world’s forests continue to shrink at an alarming rate. According to University of Maryland GLAD Lab data, loss of tropical primary forests reached 6.7 million hectares in 2024 — the rough equivalent of 18 soccer fields every minute — due to a combination of fires and agriculture.
Adopted in 2023, the EUDR requires companies bringing coffee, cocoa, soy, cattle, palm oil, rubber and wood (and many derived products) to the EU market to prove — through the geolocation of farm plots and risk-based due diligence — that the goods are deforestation-free. After facing pressure from industry organizations, including large European coffee companies, the Commission has already agreed to delay enforcement of the law by one year. Another 12-month delay would push the enforcement deadline for large EU businesses to December 30, 2026.
Additionally, the Commission has already softened reporting requirements and other corporate responsibilities associated with the law.
While welcomed by the conservative European People’s Party (EPP), the fresh postponement is being widely criticized by environmental groups.
“This would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic,” Michael Rice of the nonprofit environmental law group Client Earth said in an announcement. “The Commission is making a fool of itself by using its own inadequate IT system as an excuse to delay the world’s most important forest law for a second time in 12 months. In the current era of rapid technological evolution, it is ludicrous that the administration of the world’s biggest single market apparently can’t handle the data.”
The Rainforest Alliance characterized the postponement as “a blatant violation of all EU commitments to halt global biodiversity loss and climate change.”
Coffee, historically a driver of tropical deforestation, is directly covered under the EUDR. While public reactions to yesterday’s announcement have been scarce, reactions within the industry are likely to be mixed, as large roasting companies, traders and NGOs have spent the past two years building monitoring and traceability systems to meet the law’s geolocation and due-diligence requirements.
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Nick Brown
Nick Brown is the editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine.
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