EU proposes new delay to anti-deforestation rules

But the European Commission said the logistical infrastructure for implementing the law -- already once pushed back a year -- was not yet ready.

"We have concluded that we cannot meet the original deadline without causing disruptions to our businesses and supply chains," commission spokesman Olof Gill told a press conference in Brussels.

The European Union executive will push to delay the law's entry into force to late 2026, "to avoid uncertainty for authorities and to avoid operational difficulties for companies," he added. 

The postponement needs approval by member states and the European Parliament.

The move is set to bring renewed scrutiny to the EU's commitment to a greener future, which has come under increased pressure from governments and industry over the past year.

It came hours after the commission struck a free-trade deal with Indonesia, a prominent critic of the law -- although environment commissioner Jessika Roswall said the two developments were "not linked at all".

The deforestation law was hailed by environmental groups when it was adopted as a major breakthrough in the fight to protect nature and combat climate change.

It prohibits a vast range of goods -- from coffee to cocoa, soy, timber, palm oil, cattle, printing paper and rubber -- if produced using land that was deforested after December 2020.

- 'Capacity concerns' -

Firms importing the merchandise in question to the 27-nation EU will be responsible for tracking their supply chains to prove goods did not originate from deforested zones, relying on geolocation and satellite data.

But the ban has faced opposition from trading partners including Brazil and the United States, and some EU capitals, amid concerns over red tape, costs and lack of clarity over some aspects of the law.

Partially because of this, its entry into force was pushed back by 12 months a first time in 2024.

The commission said the new delay had to do with "serious capacity concerns" regarding the IT system designed to support implementation of the rules.

The EU has adapted an in-house platform already in use in other domains to receive declarations from importers, re-sellers and other operators that the goods they are dealing with do not come from deforested areas.

But it had largely underestimated how many would use the site and failed to foresee that some users would prompt it more than once to receive a reply, an EU official speaking on condition of anonymity explained.

Tests showed initial estimates that the site would handle around 100 million declarations per year are off by at least a factor of 10, the official said, adding the commission needed time to "find the most appropriate solution". 

- 'Wider battle' -

Environmentalists fear the delay will provide room for critics to water down the bill's requirements -- something EU lawmakers on the right already unsuccessfully attempted to do after the first postponement. 

The push comes as climate has increasingly taken a back seat in Brussels, with global trade tensions and the war in Ukraine shifting the focus to industry and defence.

"This is part of a wider battle: between those who want to protect the natural world and the life systems which depend on it, and those intent on destroying it, often driven by narrow self-interest," said Nicole Polsterer, of environmental group Fern.

"Every day this law is delayed equates to more forests razed, more wildfires and more extreme weather."

Critics of the law say it imposes an excessively heavy administrative burden on farmers and companies.

But WWF, another environmental group, said a new delay would lead to "massive stranded costs" for all firms that had already invested in complying with the new rules.

"If this technical issue is real, this shows not only incompetence, but also a clear lack of political will to invest sufficiently in a timely implementation," said Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, WWF's forest policy manager.

ub/ec/cw