In trilogue talks, EU institutions signed off on a package of irresponsible measures, including a one-year delay, a narrowing of the regulation’s scope, and a review scheduled for April 2026 that could open the door to further weakening. The political compromise to dilute the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) marks another step in Brussels’ reckless drift towards environmental deregulation.
“Years of hard-won negotiations have been thrown under the bus in a matter of hours, and in whose interest? Instead of standing firm behind its own proposal and the will of citizens, the Commission gives in and supports a deal that paves the way for the EUDR to be chipped away bit by bit,” said Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, Policy Manager for Forests at the WWF European Policy Office. “Policy-makers have the nerve to claim that they want to fight deforestation, yet they delay and dilute the action needed to protect our forests.”
The deal carries incredibly high and irreversible environmental costs: a one-year delay is likely to cause the emission of 16.8 million tonnes of CO2, an amount that would require more than twice the number of trees in Belgium to absorb. Most ironically, the agreement hinders the very businesses policy-makers claim to shield.
A constantly shifting regulatory framework has created deep uncertainty across supply chains, exacerbated by a 2026 review that will be carried out before there is any evidence of how the law works in practice.
