{"id":264246,"date":"2025-07-14T12:48:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T12:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/264246\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T12:48:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T12:48:13","slug":"laundered-russian-timber-chips-into-eu-as-states-seek-deforestation-carve-outs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/264246\/","title":{"rendered":"Laundered Russian timber chips into EU as states seek deforestation carve-outs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nSuspect Russian and Belarusian wood is still entering the EU despite wartime sanctions, new data reveals, as several member states push to delay enforcement of the bloc\u2019s anti-deforestation law.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nIn a letter<\/a> sent to the European Commission last week, EU member states including Portugal, Estonia, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Czechia, Bulgaria, and Poland called for exemptions from the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which is set to take effect in December.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut new findings from NGO Earthsight show that many of these same countries continue to import birch plywood \u2013 a high-value wood product \u2013 from China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. These origins have been previously linked to the laundering of Russian timber products since the EU’s sanctions on Russia and Belarus following the former’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 came into effect.\n<\/p>\n

\nEarthsight’s latest analysis<\/a> of new trade data until April 2025 builds on its earlier investigation<\/a>, published in January, which found EU countries had imported \u20ac1.5 billion worth of Russian birch plywood since the start of sanctions in 2022.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\nIn March, the European Commission’s sanctions unit (DG FISMA) warned<\/a> that Russian and Belarusian timber producers were relabelling and rerouting through third countries to evade EU trade restrictions.\n<\/p>\n

\nAlthough Brussels imposed anti-dumping tariffs<\/a> on Chinese hardwood plywood in June, including birch, NGOs argue the levy does not distinguish between birch and lower-risk hardwood species, and could therefore fail to stop exports.\n<\/p>\n

\nBetween February and April this year, Spain \u2013 which has not requested EUDR exemptions \u2013 was the EU\u2019s top importer of suspect birch plywood, with shipments worth over \u20ac15 million in estimated retail value, Earthsight found. Portugal followed with more than \u20ac12 million, while Estonia imported nearly \u20ac10 million worth, mainly from Kazakhstan.\n<\/p>\n

\nHowever, Poland \u2013 the largest importer between 2022 and 2024 \u2013 has since significantly stepped up checks, leading to a sharp drop in imports from February this year. Spain’s wood and furniture association has\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0that continued Russian imports threaten domestic industry, echoing similar concerns raised by producers in\u00a0Latvia<\/a>\u00a0and Poland.\n<\/p>\n

\nEurostat data reviewed by Euractiv shows that prior to Russia\u2019s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, EU imports of birch plywood from Kazakhstan and Georgia were nonexistent, while imports from China and Turkey were negligible in most member states.\n<\/p>\n

Political momentum<\/strong>
\nThe trade revelations come as political pressure mounts to weaken the EUDR \u2013 a flagship EU law aimed at stopping products linked to deforestation from entering the single market.<\/p>\n

Last week, the European Parliament adopted an EPP-led resolution<\/a> rejecting the Commission\u2019s proposed risk classification and calling for a new “no-risk” category for countries with their own deforestation laws.<\/p>\n

Russia and Belarus are designated high-risk under the EUDR, but countries like Kazakhstan, China, Turkey, and Georgia \u2013 all flagged by NGOs \u2013 are currently classified as low-risk, along with all EU member states.<\/p>\n

Austrian MEP Thomas Waitz from the Greens group and a forester himself, warned that the no-risk category and a delay in implementation would undermine regime against Russia.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe EPP needs to show up for Ukraine,\u201d he said, referring to the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP)\n<\/p>\n

\nPascal Canfin, the lead negotiator on the regulation for the liberal Renew group, said calls to weaken the EUDR were \u201ca gift to countries like Russia\u201d and undermine EU sovereignty.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe EUDR includes stricter traceability rules than existing timber laws and was designed to close known loopholes. But Earthsight argues that the proposed \u201cno risk\u201d category \u2013 backed by 18 farming ministers and the European Parliament \u2013 could make EUDR even weaker than current rules.\n<\/p>\n

\nEPP MEP Alexander Bernhuber, who leads the push<\/a> to exempt some EU countries from EUDR obligations with the new risk category, said the regulation should not be used to enforce sanctions.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201c[Circumvention] is already a criminal offence that must be prosecuted with full force,\u201d he told Euractiv, adding that what is needed are \u201cstricter controls at the EU\u2019s external borders and enforcement of existing sanction regulations.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt cannot be the case that with the EUDR we punish those who practice sustainable and responsible forestry,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n

\n(adm, de)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Suspect Russian and Belarusian wood is still entering the EU despite wartime sanctions, new data reveals, as several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-264246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114851669831051982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}