LUXEMBOURG — The European Commission has dropped a plan to delay its flagship anti-deforestation law, just a month after announcing it wanted to pause it for another year. However, the EU executive has proposed a number of changes to the law to reduce paperwork, Environment Commissioner Roswall announced on Tuesday during the Environment Council meeting in Luxembourg. Only the company that first places a product onto the market will have to submit a due diligence statement for example, she said, with the aim of reducing paperwork and reducing the load on the IT system. The announcement follows a string of unexpected developments regarding the EU Deforestation-free Regulation(EUDR), which was enacted in 2023 and is designed to ensure products such as coffee, beef, cocoa and palm oil imported to the EU do not come from deforested land. It was already delayed by 12 months last year. Under the new proposal, micro- and small businesses will still be given an extra year to comply. The EUDR will come into force on December 30 this year as planned, however companies that can’t comply immediately have a six-month grace period until June 30. The European Parliament and Council of the EU must approve the Commission’s proposal.

Europe’s trees are having a nightmare 2025. As the European Union reels from its worst wildfire season on record, two different EU laws aimed at protecting forests this week fell victim to the anti-red tape wave sweeping Brussels. On Tuesday, Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall announced that the European Commission planned to delay the implementation of its flagship anti-deforestation law. Then, just hours later, lawmakers voted to reject a separate law designed to monitor forests’ health and resilience to climate change. “Between Forest Monitoring and the one-year delay of the [EU Deforestation Regulation], this is a dark day for European forests,” said Socialists and Democrats Member of the European Parliament Eric Sargiacomo. Forest ecosystems are home to over half of the world’s terrestrial species and, as natural absorbers of carbon dioxide, they play a crucial role in combating climate change. Protecting them has therefore been a central pillar of the EU’s environmental policy. But as the EU’s priorities shift toward industrial competitiveness and defense, support for forest protections has waned. Announcing the proposed delay of the anti-deforestation rules, Roswall cited issues with the IT system handling businesses’ due diligence statements as the rationale. But the move falls in step with a long-standing demand from the center-right European People’s Party, the bloc’s biggest political group and one of the loudest agitators for slashing EU regulations. The law — which requires companies to police their supply chains to make sure any commodities they use, such as palm oil, beef or coffee, have not contributed to deforestation — was adopted in 2023 and already delayed by a year in 2024 following calls by businesses saying they needed more time to comply. This week’s announcement is seen as the latest in a long string of actions by the Commission since late last year to weaken or delay environmental rules passed under the European Green Deal, part of a grand push to boost the global competitiveness of European industry. In a second blow to Europe’s trees, later that Tuesday MEPs voted against proposed EU forest monitoring rules, following motions to reject the law presented by the center-right EPP, the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists and the far-right Patriots for Europe group. It spells a complicated way forward for the law, which sets out rules for collecting data on the health of Europe’s forests, with the goal of improving management and protecting them from climate change. “Without the detailed, specific evidence on Europe’s forests this law would provide, it will be immeasurably harder to support forest owners to adapt to the climate crisis and secure a sustainable wood supply for industry,” said Kelsey Perlman, a campaigner at the forest NGO Fern. “Poorer information will inevitably lead to unhealthier forests,” she added. EPP CLAIMS VICTORY Both developments are being claimed as wins by the EPP, which sees the laws as antithetical to the EU’s ongoing simplification drive. The EPP has “protected foresters from unnecessary paperwork by rejecting the Monitoring Framework for Resilient European Forests,” the group said in a press statement, having voted with right-wing and far-right groups to reject the law. That rejection still has to go to a plenary vote, but the outcome is likely to be the same. As for the EU’s deforestation rules, the Commission’s push to delay shows that “our consistent criticism has finally been taken seriously,” said EPP MEP Alexander Bernhuber. | Armin Weigel/Picture Alliance via Getty Images “Ursula von der Leyen declared 25 percent less bureaucracy,” said MEP Stefan Köhler, referring to a promise from the Commission president — who also hails from the EPP — to create a “more favorable” business environment through an “unprecedented simplification effort.” “The Commission should therefore recall 100 percent of [the forest monitoring law],” Köhler added. As for the EU’s deforestation rules, the Commission’s push to delay shows that “our consistent criticism has finally been taken seriously,” said EPP MEP Alexander Bernhuber. But a delay isn’t enough, he added, calling for “substantial changes” to be delivered in the “coming weeks.” That’s got fire alarm bells ringing on the left flank of the Parliament. “European forests are burning, and the EPP, allied with the far right, prefers to play the arsonist by blocking all European legislation aimed at sustainable forest management,” said Sargiacomo, the Socialist MEP. “Once again EPP proved that they prioritize populist gains instead of taking responsibility,” said Swedish centrist lawmaker Emma Wiesner of the forest monitoring vote, who led work on the file. TURN IT OFF AND ON AGAIN The Commission, for its part, on Tuesday stressed the importance of the EU’s anti-deforestation push and cited an issue with the IT system that deals with the submission of businesses’ due diligence statements as the rationale for postponing. It wouldn’t be able to handle all the notifications coming from economic operators, said a Commission official. “This is a first of a kind legislation in terms of the scope and the sophistication of the provisions in the EUDR,” said the official. “As always, when you have no blueprint, you have a great number of uncertainties in the design of the implementation mechanisms, and this is particularly true when it comes to IT systems.” Business groups have long complained about the impracticality of the EU’s system for proving they’re compliant. But Green groups and MEPs are having none of it. “This would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic,” said ClientEarth lawyer Michael Rice in a press statement. “The Commission is making a fool of itself by using its own inadequate IT system as an excuse to delay the world’s most important forest law for a second time in 12 months.” The Commission also had to bat away accusations of caving to pressure from upset trade partners like the United States and major palm oil exporter Indonesia. In a joint statement issued by the EU and the U.S. last month, formalizing their tariff truce, the EU made a vague promise to address U.S. concerns regarding the EU’s deforestation law. Tuesday’s announcement also came one day after the EU finalized a new trade agreement with major palm oil exporter Indonesia — whose foreign affairs ministry said last week it was hoping for new flexibility in the law. “Receiving this news on the same day that we learn of the signing of a free-trade agreement with Indonesia favoring palm oil is more than disturbing,” said Green MEP Marie Toussaint. “After bowing her head to Donald Trump, is Ursula von der Leyen ready to sacrifice the European model to every foreign whim?” Louise Guillot contributed to this report.

The European Commission has proposed delaying the EU’s flagship anti-deforestation law for the second year in a row as it continues its war on red tape. The rules, which would force companies to stop using commodities that have been produced on deforested land, are unpopular with many businesses who argue they impose complex regulatory burdens. Several of the EU’s trading partners have also complained about the law. “[W]e still cannot believe that we can really get this without disruption for our businesses,” the EU’s environment commissioner Jessika Roswall told reporters on Tuesday, announcing the delay of the European Union Deforestation Regulation. “We need the time to combat the risk with the load of information in the IT system.” The regulation was originally scheduled to apply from Dec. 30 2024, before the Commission proposed delaying it to the end of this year, giving companies and trading partners an extra 12 months to get ready to comply with the new tracing and due diligence requirements. But more time is needed, said Roswall, and the EU executive has now sent letters to the Council of the EU and the European Parliament proposing a further delay. It’s the latest in a long string of actions by the Commission since late last year to weaken or delay green rules, part of a grand push to get rid of red tape and boost the global competitiveness of European industry. The anti-deforestation rules, which target commodities such as coffee, beef, soy and palm oil, require companies to look deep into their supply chain to ensure these commodities hadn’t contributed to deforestation or human rights abuses. Some businesses claimed this information was often unobtainable. The commissioner denied the Commission’s push to delay was linked to complaints from trade partners, such as the U.S., Japan or Malaysia. She also denied it was linked to the conclusion of thorny trade talks with Indonesia on Monday, the world’s largest exporter of palm oil. Roswall kept the door open to tweaking the substance of the deforestation rules. “The other thing that we also have been working [on] for a long time is the simplification of different angles,” she said, which the Commission will “now also discuss with the ministers.” A majority of EU members earlier this year called for the deforestation rules’ application to be delayed, pending cuts to certain measures. AN EPP WIN The center-right European People’s Party, the biggest force in the European Parliament, has long been pushing to weaken and delay the rules. “Our efforts have finally been successful,” said Peter Liese MEP, the EPP’s environment spokesman. “If the deforestation regulation had entered into force unchanged on 1 January, it would have caused unsolvable problems for many small foresters, farmers, and small and medium-sized enterprises, such as medium-sized coffee roasters,” he said. Green groups condemned the Commission’s decision. The proposed delay is an “unacceptable and a massive embarrassment for President von der Leyen and her Commission,” said Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, forest policy manager at the WWF European Policy Office. “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 of the EUDR.” Thomas Waitz, agriculture coordinator for the Greens, said it was a “dark day for global forest protection.” The Commission is “bowing to the wishes of the agricultural industry and sawmill lobby and their EPP henchmen,” he said. A study published last month found that deforestation has killed more than half a million people in the tropics over the past two decades because of heat-related illness. Another found that about 75 percent of the decrease in rainfall in the Amazon rainforest is directly linked to deforestation. Louise Guillot contributed to this report.

BRUSSELS — When Donald Trump threatened the European Union with 30 percent tariffs, Ursula von der Leyen didn’t take the bait. She looked east instead of west and quickly announced a “political agreement” on a trade deal with Indonesia, the fourth-most-populous country in the world, after nine years and 19 negotiating rounds. That’s no coincidence.  Responding to the U.S. president’s trade threat, which landed on July 12, a Saturday, the head of the European Commission said: “We continue to deepen our global partnerships, firmly anchored in the principles of rules-based international trade.”  The next day, von der Leyen hosted Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto for a photo-op in Brussels, declaring that “Europe and Indonesia are choosing a path of openness, partnership, and shared prosperity.”  Prabowo, who apologized for disturbing von der Leyen on a Sunday, said “the agreement must support our efforts to grow our industries, create jobs, and strengthen our sustainable development goals.”  However, Indonesia’s long list of import restrictions, unpredictable regulations, raw material bans and refusal to implement World Trade Organization judgments have made it a difficult partner to deal with. Does the political declaration mean that Jakarta is really ready to turn the page? And what exactly does a “political agreement to advance the trade agreement” even signify? It’s not a conclusion of talks, let alone a signature. Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, a Swedish former trade diplomat who now heads the European Centre for International Political Economy, says it just means the leaders have “the intention to conclude the negotiations.” “It doesn’t mean that they are done,” he told POLITICO. “We instruct our negotiators: ‘Get it done. Give me a compromise that I can sell.’ ” A FIRM PATH Fabian Gehl, who is leading the EU’s trade negotiations with Indonesia, told European lawmakers that the political agreement “sets a firm path for closing all the remaining gaps in the coming weeks and land[ing] a full agreement by September.”  But given that the tumultuous talks have stretched over almost 20 rounds and nearly a decade, it remains unclear whether both sides can realistically meet that timeline to finalize the Indonesia–European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement — or IEU CEPA. Just two days after von der Leyen met with Prabowo, Trump announced his own deal with Indonesia, agreeing to a 19 percent tariff on its exports to the U.S. For American exports? No tariffs.  Just two days after Ursula von der Leyen met with Prabowo Subianto, Donald Trump announced his own deal with Indonesia, agreeing to a 19 percent tariff on its exports to the U.S. | Bagus Indahono/EPA The European Parliament’s lead lawmaker on the talks, Iuliu Winkler — who is also deputy chair of its trade committee — considers the September deadline “quite feasible.” “To my knowledge, the resolution of all the outstanding technical issues by the negotiators is doable by then,” the Romanian Christian Democrat told POLITICO, stressing the need to meet the target date “in a global context of escalating trade volatility.” The talk in the Brussels trade bubble is that a third of the trade agreement’s chapters are still on the table — energy and raw materials, import licensing, trade and sustainable development — while services are partially up for debate. Commission spokesperson Olof Gill told POLITICO that the EU needs “to fine-tune the details” on market access for the key products remaining.  “We have already secured an extremely ambitious level of liberalization in terms of volumes and tariff lines, and we are now focusing on further improving the treatment for key products for the EU (and for Indonesia). We will continue to ensure a careful handling of sensitive products for the EU,” Gill said.  A spokesperson for the Mission of Indonesia to the EU told POLITICO they were  “optimistic” that a deal can be done by September.  AN END TO ULTRA-PROTECTIONISM? Cecilia Malmström, who served as EU trade commissioner from 2014-2019, is surprised by the reported progress in the talks. “During my time as trade commissioner, they advanced very slowly,” she recalled to POLITICO. Indonesia has now realized “it has to leave its ultra-protectionist line,” she said. The Swedish politician said the trade and sustainable development (TSD) chapter of the accord would be a particularly difficult one to solve. “I don’t know if September is realistic,” she said, “but people close to the negotiations claim that the end of this year is definitely possible.” Gill said that an “agreement has been reached on all the key elements” of the TSD chapter — but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s been finalized or agreed.  Jakarta and Brussels are still nursing wounds from a WTO case in 2021 over nickel ore. Indonesia, a leading producer, had imposed a ban on exports of the raw material, which yields the industrial metal used to make electric-vehicle batteries and stainless steel. The bloc challenged and won, but since there’s no functioning appellate body, Indonesia appealed the case into the void.  What’s more, the ban is still in force today — and that remains a sticking point in the talks.  “It’s also the right of Indonesia to want to develop local industry and to hold a share of the value of nickel in their country and build up their own industrial policy,” said Alessa Hartmann, a researcher at German climate think tank Power Shift.  Now, the EU’s deforestation regulation, due to take effect Dec. 30, will set a high bar for Indonesia to prove that any palm oil exports to Europe aren’t linked to deforestation. | Holti Simanjuntak/EPA Despite that, the EU is still pushing for access to raw materials in the deal. Spokesperson Gill said the EU was “striking the right balance between fostering EU competitiveness, by removing Indonesia’s distortive measures on key supply chains, and catering for Indonesia’s policy space needs.” DEFORESTATION DIFFERENCES It’s not only nickel ore that symbolizes the EU’s quest for critical raw materials in its bid to reduce its dependence on China — Indonesia is also the world’s largest producer of palm oil. “Indonesia’s vast reserves make it a prime target,” said Aryanto Nugroho, national coordinator for Publish What You Pay (PWYP) in Indonesia, a transparency watchdog focused on resource extractivism. The EU wants more palm oil for its biofuels industry, though it’s become caught up in the controversy over deforestation and sustainability standards. Land clearance to plant palm trees has accounted for one-third of Indonesia’s deforestation over the past 20 years, according to a 2022 study. Now, the EU’s deforestation regulation (EUDR), due to take effect Dec. 30, will set a high bar for Indonesia to prove that any palm oil exports to Europe aren’t linked to deforestation. Brussels has labeled Indonesia a “standard risk” on its classification list. But Indonesia can’t negotiate that in a trade deal, as it’s an incoming EU regulation. “There’s a parallel track of discussion with Indonesia on deforestation,” Gehl told MEPs. Yet the word in Brussels is that EUDR remains an issue in the talks.  Despite that, Indonesian Trade Minister Airlangga Hartarto said in June that the EU would give “special treatment” to palm oil in the pending trade deal: “The main issues on sustainability and traceability of our forest products have been relatively resolved,” he said.

The European Union and Indonesia reached an agreement on Sunday to move ahead on a trade deal, marking a major breakthrough between two of the world’s largest economies against the backdrop of global trade tensions. The two sides “reached a political agreement to advance the trade agreement,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement Sunday. “In a volatile world, this is the strength of partnerships,” she said ahead of a joint appearance with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. Subianto arrived in Brussels over the weekend for talks in a bid to secure tariff-free access to the EU for Indonesian goods under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). While a deal had been under development, one key sticking point had been trade in palm oil products, which conflict with the EU’s anti-deforestation policies. “We are living in turbulent times and, when economic uncertainty meets geopolitical volatility, partners like us must come closer together,” von der Leyen said in a joint press conference. “So today we’re taking a big step forward in this partnership.” The move comes just a day after U.S. President Donald Trump sent a letter to Brussels declaring EU exports to the country would be subject to 30 percent tariffs starting Aug. 1, despite Brussels having scrambled to reach a deal with Washington. Two diplomats told POLITICO that they hoped the grace period gave additional time to negotiate an exemption. “For Indonesia, CEPA is not only about trade, it is about fairness, respect, and building a strong future together,” said Subianto. “The agreement must support our efforts to grow our industries, create jobs, and strengthen our sustainable development goals,” he said. “We are ready to finalize it soon, in a way that benefits both our peoples,” Subianto said.