EU Deforestation Regulation

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 prohibits placing on the EU market, or exporting from it, seven covered commodities (cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soy, and wood) and their derived products unless they are deforestation-free, produced in accordance with the legislation of the country of production, and covered by a due-diligence statement carrying geolocation data for each plot of origin.^[1]

The regulation entered into force on 29 June 2023.^[1] Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 (December 2025) postponed application dates: large and medium operators and traders must comply by 30 December 2026; micro and small enterprises by 30 June 2027.^[2] The original compliance dates under Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 were 30 December 2024 for large and medium operators and 30 June 2025 for micro and small enterprises.^[1]

Operators must submit due-diligence statements into the EU Information System before market placement, receiving reference numbers for customs; micro and small primary operators may file simplified declarations.^[3] Plots larger than 4 hectares require polygon geolocation; plots of 4 hectares or smaller require a single coordinate point, with a minimum of six decimal digits of precision.^[3]

Geolocation submissions are cross-referenced against Copernicus land cover layers by competent authorities, with Sentinel-2 imagery used as the de facto standard for verifying plots against the 31 December 2020 deforestation cut-off date.^[4] EU Information System submissions use GeoJSON in WGS84 (EPSG:4326) as the coordinate reference system.^[3]

Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1093 (published May 2025) classifies 194 countries into three risk tiers: four high-risk countries (Belarus, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia), approximately 50 standard-risk countries including Brazil and Indonesia, and approximately 140 low-risk countries including EU member states, the United States, Canada, China, and the United Kingdom.^[5] The EU Parliament raised an objection in July 2025 but that objection carries no suspensive effect.^[5]

The EU Timber Regulation (EU) 995/2010 is repealed on the EUDR application date of 30 December 2026.^[6] A Commission simplification review (COM(2026) 191 final, published May 2026) estimates that cumulative simplification measures reduce annual compliance costs from approximately EUR 8.1 billion to EUR 2.0 billion.^[7] A draft delegated act on product scope is pending at the time of this entry.^[7]