{"id":471321,"date":"2025-10-03T14:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T14:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/471321\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T14:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T14:48:10","slug":"extra-year-delay-to-eu-law-will-increase-deforestation-chocolate-firms-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/471321\/","title":{"rendered":"Extra year delay to EU law will increase deforestation, chocolate firms warn"},"content":{"rendered":"

European chocolate makers, including\u00a0Nestl\u00e9, Mars and Ferrero, have condemned the EU Commission\u2019s\u00a0plans to delay the bloc\u2019s landmark anti-deforestation law by another year<\/a>,\u00a0warning that it would actually lead to more deforestation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an open letter to the EU executive on Friday (3 October),\u00a0the firms\u00a0state that they have been actively preparing and investing \u201cin good faith that the European legislative framework and timeline were reliable\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

They added that a further delay will \u201cundermine industry trust in Europe\u2019s regulatory commitments, create considerable uncertainty and compliance costs for businesses, and put forests worldwide at risk.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week, the\u00a0commission blamed massive overuse of its\u00a0in-house\u00a0IT system<\/a>, which companies must use\u00a0to declare compliance with the\u00a0law for its decision to postpone its implementation for a second consecutive year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Use of the system is expected to\u00a0be\u00a010-times higher than initially\u00a0anticipated,\u00a0with up to one billion due diligence certificates per year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the commission also\u00a0wants to water down the legislation by\u00a0creating\u00a0a new\u00a0‘no-risk’ category as part of the benchmarking regime, which\u00a0determines\u00a0compliance \u2014 which would effectively exempt many countries from the regulation entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The commission has previously warned that another year\u2019s delay would result in around 230,000 hectares of deforestation globally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the letter, the firms urged the EU\u00a0to avoid using the IT issue as grounds to reopen, delay, or change the EUDR.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, the commission also requested its first one-year delay and\u00a0sought\u00a0to water down the scope of the regulation to ensure that only multi-national importers and buyers are covered.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0EU\u2019s deforestation regulation (EUDR)\u00a0was designed<\/a>\u00a0to require sellers of products like beef, coffee, chocolate, palm\u00a0oil\u00a0and wood to\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0that their goods are traceable to land that has not been deforested after\u00a031 December 2020, and\u00a0was passed by a wide majority in the European parliament and among EU governments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But since\u00a0then,\u00a0a raft of EU lawmakers and governments, particularly conservatives and the rightwing,\u00a0have got\u00a0cold feet about a series of laws, including the deforestation regulation, that are part of the EU\u2019s Green Deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are also concerns that the extra compliance burden will make EU firms less competitive than their rivals in the US or China<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The deforestation law was also drawn up with the support of much of the cocoa and chocolate industry, with many arguing that\u00a0supplier due diligence and implementing traceability systems, which are at the heart of the EUDR, will lead to responsible raw material sourcing and good business practice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A letter signed by the same companies in June urged the Commission that fresh delays \u201cwould severely undermine one of the EU\u2019s flagship policies for tackling global deforestation and nature degradation\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Mondel\u0113z, previously among the strongest corporate supporters of the legislation, has\u00a0recently\u00a0warned that the chocolate industry was already struggling with “record prices and supply\u00a0shocks.”<\/p>\n

In their letter on 3 October, the companies\u00a0added that \u201cclear, predictable, and comprehensive regulations on environmental and human rights responsibilities are important for the EU\u2019s long-term competitiveness.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every month, hundreds of thousands of people read the journalism and opinion published by EUobserver. With your support, millions of others will as well.<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

If you’re not already, become\u00a0<\/strong><\/b>a supporting member today<\/strong><\/b><\/a>.<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European chocolate makers, including\u00a0Nestl\u00e9, Mars and Ferrero, have condemned the EU Commission\u2019s\u00a0plans to delay the bloc\u2019s landmark anti-deforestation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187],"class_list":{"0":"post-471321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115310788879597152","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471321","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=471321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}