In the end, the European People’s Party’s coup on the deforestation law only served to create friction between the political groups during the period of the commissioners’ hearings, but from a legislative point of view it proved to be a stalemate. The European Parliament and the EU Council have reached an agreement in trilogue (the forum in which negotiations between institutions take place) on the postponement of the entry into force of the regulation for one year to combat so-called “imported deforestation”, while rejecting the amendments desired and made approved by the EPP by allying itself with the radical right.
The clash
The regulation has already been in force since 29 June 2023 and its provisions should be applied starting from 30 December 2024. But the Commission has proposed to postpone the date of application by one year to allow third countries, Member States, operators and traders to be fully prepared to put into practice the new rules that aim to ensure that certain raw materials purchased from third countries do not contribute to deforestation.
The Ursula majority is divided on deforestation
These raw materials include cattle products, wood, cocoa, soybeans, palm oil, coffee, rubber and some of their derivatives. Last month, Manfred Weber’s EPP, with a coup, took advantage of the Commission’s request to postpone the application, a request which required approval from the Community Assembly, to insert some amendments which weakened the text, going against the indications of socialists and liberals. And he did it thanks to the support of the Patriots of Orban and Salvini, the Conservatives of Meloni and the Europe of the sovereign nations of the German AfD, triggering a political case in Brussels.
The rejection
But the EU Council, which represents the member states, then disavowed these changes and in the end in the final negotiations with Parliament even the deputies took a step back, abandoning the People’s Party line. “The right takes a serious beating on deforestation”, declared Valentina Palmisano, MEP of the 5 Star Movement, according to whom what happened “is a warning above all to the PPP: the EU cannot be governed with right-wing forces that want to destroy it and who have divergent interests from the pro-European forces”.
On deforestation, the states reject the line of the European Parliament (or rather the popular ones)
Formal legislative steps are still missing. The ambassadors of the EU countries confirmed at the Coreper meeting the political agreement reached in the trilogue, an agreement which received the approval of the Environment Commission (Envi) of the European Chamber and which will be put to the vote of the entire plenary in Strasbourg on 17 December The amendment process will be concluded with final adoption by the Council, in a ministerial meeting or through a written procedure. The law will then come into force on 30 December 2025 for large companies and 30 June 2026 for SMEs, instead of December 2024 and June 2025 respectively.
