The European Parliament has approved amendments to the EU Deforestation Regulation, aiming to postpone and simplify certain requirements for businesses. The regulation, initially adopted in 2023, is designed to address climate change and biodiversity loss by ensuring that products sold within the European Union are not linked to deforested land.
In a vote held on December 17, 2025, Members of Parliament supported the changes with 405 votes in favor, 242 against, and eight abstentions. These adjustments had already been informally agreed upon with EU member states earlier in December.
Under the revised timeline, large operators and traders will now have until December 30, 2026, to comply with the regulation. Smaller operators—defined as private individuals or enterprises with fewer than 50 employees and an annual turnover below €10 million related to the regulated products—will have until June 30, 2027. This extension is intended to facilitate a smoother transition and allow additional time for improvements to the IT system used for electronic due diligence statements.
The updated rules also introduce simplified requirements for micro and small primary operators. Instead of ongoing obligations, these businesses will be required to submit only a one-off simplified declaration. Furthermore, responsibility for submitting due diligence statements will rest solely with those companies first placing relevant products on the EU market; subsequent traders or operators will not be required to file such statements.
By April 30, 2026, the European Commission is tasked with presenting a report evaluating the law’s impact and administrative burden on micro and small operators. Additionally, printed products have been excluded from the scope of this regulation following requests from Parliament.
After the vote, Christine Schneider (EPP, Germany), who served as Parliament’s rapporteur on this issue, stated: “The heart of the EU deforestation regulation remains intact. We are protecting forests that face a real risk of deforestation, while avoiding unnecessary obligations in areas where no such risk exists. This agreement takes the concerns of farmers, foresters and businesses seriously and ensures that the regulation can be implemented in a practical and workable way.”
For these changes to take effect before entering into force at the end of 2025, they must still receive endorsement from the Council and be published in the EU’s Official Journal.
The original regulation targets commodities such as cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soya, wood, rubber and cattle products associated with deforestation driven by EU consumption. According to estimates from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), approximately 420 million hectares of forest were lost globally between 1990 and 2020—a figure exceeding the size of the entire European Union—with EU consumption accounting for about ten percent of worldwide deforestation. Palm oil and soya represent more than two-thirds of this impact.
