The growing problem of global deforestation and forest degradation, which is causing biodiversity loss, has not escaped the attention of European Union lawmakers. In 2021, the European Commission proposed a regulation to address this situation. After the proposal was approved, it was discovered that the new rules could not come into effect until a year later than planned, and it is uncertain whether the European Parliament will be able to approve this delay.<\/p>\n
Work on these new provisions started more than three years ago. The Commission presented its proposal on 17 November 2021 and a provisional agreement was reached on 6 December 2022. The proposal was subsequently approved by the European Parliament and the Council.<\/p>\n
The new regulation, known as the EUDR, has raised concerns and protests from stakeholders. The Commission has asked for part of the regulation to be postponed. The European Parliament is considering other amendments that could slow down the process of its approval. This includes the categorisation of countries according to risk and its own legislative proposals. If Parliament has exceeded its powers, this could be subject to a decision by the Court of Justice, although the Council of the EU, which also makes decisions, can slow down the process.<\/p>\n
The Regulation replaces older legislation and extends obligations to a wider range of operators and products. It focuses not only on timber but also on other commodities such as cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm, rubber, soya and timber listed in Annex I. It also covers many entities, including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.<\/p>\n
The EUDR introduces a duty of due diligence and requires regulated entities to collect information on the origin of products, assess risks and implement measures to reduce the risk of non-compliance. The new rules apply regardless of the volume of goods and exclude some products that may contain the listed commodities but are not explicitly listed.<\/p>\n
The EUDR principles state that commodities and products must be deforestation-free, compliant with landscape production legislation and supported by a due diligence declaration in order to be traded.<\/p>\n
According to Article 25 of the Regulation, Member States must lay down penalties for those who infringe the Regulation, which must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. These include fines, confiscations or temporary bans on companies.<\/p>\n
Although the sanctions under the EUDR do not apply directly, they require implementation into Slovak legislation, which has not yet occurred. As a result, the extent of liability of Slovak companies is still not fully known.<\/p>\n
Finally, the new regulations introduce a number of obligations that can be particularly burdensome for SMEs, and the level of awareness of these changes is low, which is causing resistance. The approach of the European Parliament and the prolongation of the legislative process have been criticised by many for their lack of legal certainty. Although the provisions are in force since mid-2023, the objective of combating deforestation and biodiversity loss remains key. Co2AI<\/em><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The growing problem of global deforestation and forest degradation, which is causing biodiversity loss, has not escaped the attention of European Union legislators. In 2021, the European Commission proposed a regulation to address this situation. After the proposal was approved, it was discovered that the new rules could not come into effect until a year later than planned, and it is uncertain whether the European Parliament will have time [\u2026]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klimaticka-zmena"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}