Brussels (ANSA) – The Green Deal has encountered another slowdown. As the EU summit approaches, focusing on green policies and competitiveness, the European Commission has introduced a “targeted” revision of the deforestation regulation for imports, aiming to reduce bureaucracy and extend timelines, particularly easing reporting duties for small and micro enterprises.
The implementation of new regulations regarding soy, coffee, and cocoa imports—raw materials associated with deforestation—has also been delayed. Concurrently, the European Parliament in Strasbourg signaled further delays, as the alliance between the EPP, Conservatives, and far-right factions again united to reject a proposal aimed at establishing a common monitoring framework for forest areas, which was introduced in 2023 and backed by Socialists and Liberals.
The deforestation law, originally postponed by a year for simplification, was scheduled to take effect at the end of 2025 for large companies and in June 2026 for SMEs. Recently, Brussels indicated a desire to propose an additional one-year delay for the regulation. The latest changes push the application of the rules to December 30, 2026, for small and micro enterprises, while also providing a six-month penalty-free transition period for medium and large companies.
While the timelines are better regulated, the primary alteration involves the reporting obligations. The Commission suggests easing these for small and micro operators, including farmers and those engaged in transforming or reselling products in the EU market. Instead of submitting compliance declarations, they will only need to complete a simplified registration on the IT platform established by the regulation.
Complete due diligence will still rest with upstream operators, those placing products on the EU market initially. Additionally, Brussels clarifies that a company qualifies as “small” if it has fewer than 50 employees and generates a turnover not exceeding 18 million euros (as of October 21).
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