15 October 2024

More time for the implementation of the EUDR and further guidance published

  • Articles
  • Legal
  • Governance / ESG
  • Regulatory Compliance

Swiss companies are also affected by the EUDR. Now they will also be granted a little more time for implementation. In addition, the EU Commission has published new FAQs and further Guidance on implementation. Read more about this in our article.

  • Adrian Peyer

    Legal Partner

On October 2, 2024, the European Commission proposed postponing compliance with the EU regulation on deforestation (EUDR) by one year. According to the proposal, large companies would now have until December 30, 2025 (instead of December 30, 2024) to comply with the regulation, and SMEs would have until June 30, 2026 (instead of June 30, 2025). The proposal still needs to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council, but this is widely expected.

The European Commission publishes additional EUDR guidance (Guidance on EU Deforestation Regulation - European Commission (europa.eu)). The guidance is divided into 11 chapters covering various topics, such as legality requirements, application period, agricultural use and explanations of the product scope. Among other things, the guidance also deals with traceability obligations, the functionalities of the information system and sanctions as well as explanations of definitions such as "forest degradation", "operator" and "placing on the market".

In addition, the Commission has updated its EUDR FAQs and added more than 40 additional answers FAQs_en_241001.pdf;jsessionid=6DCC67C49EE6EA7BA72C8AF7DFFA9ED6.internet011 (ble.de)

The Commission also publishes the principles of the methodology it will use for EUDR benchmarking to classify countries as low, medium or high risk for the purposes of market participants' due diligence. The Commission has indicated that a "large majority" of countries will be classified as low risk. The country benchmarking system is expected to be completed by June 30, 2025.

Finally, the information system in which companies will register their due diligence declarations should be ready for registrations at the beginning of November and for full operation in December.

This gives affected Swiss companies additional time to prepare for the continued high requirements of the EUDR.

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