European chocolate makers, including Nestlé, Mars and Ferrero, have condemned the EU Commission’s plans to delay the bloc’s landmark anti-deforestation law by another year, warning that it would actually lead to more deforestation.
In an open letter to the EU executive on Friday (3 October), the firms state that they have been actively preparing and investing “in good faith that the European legislative framework and timeline were reliable”.
They added that a further delay will “undermine industry trust in Europe’s regulatory commitments, create considerable uncertainty and compliance costs for businesses, and put forests worldwide at risk.”
Last week, the commission blamed massive overuse of its in-house IT system, which companies must use to declare compliance with the law for its decision to postpone its implementation for a second consecutive year.
Use of the system is expected to be 10-times higher than initially anticipated, with up to one billion due diligence certificates per year.
However, the commission also wants to water down the legislation by creating a new 'no-risk' category as part of the benchmarking regime, which determines compliance — which would effectively exempt many countries from the regulation entirely.
The commission has previously warned that another year’s delay would result in around 230,000 hectares of deforestation globally.
In the letter, the firms urged the EU to avoid using the IT issue as grounds to reopen, delay, or change the EUDR.
Last year, the commission also requested its first one-year delay and sought to water down the scope of the regulation to ensure that only multi-national importers and buyers are covered.
The EU’s deforestation regulation (EUDR) was designed to require sellers of products like beef, coffee, chocolate, palm oil and wood to demonstrate that their goods are traceable to land that has not been deforested after 31 December 2020, and was passed by a wide majority in the European parliament and among EU governments.
But since then, a raft of EU lawmakers and governments, particularly conservatives and the rightwing, have got cold feet about a series of laws, including the deforestation regulation, that are part of the EU’s Green Deal.
There are also concerns that the extra compliance burden will make EU firms less competitive than their rivals in the US or China.
The deforestation law was also drawn up with the support of much of the cocoa and chocolate industry, with many arguing that supplier due diligence and implementing traceability systems, which are at the heart of the EUDR, will lead to responsible raw material sourcing and good business practice.
A letter signed by the same companies in June urged the Commission that fresh delays “would severely undermine one of the EU’s flagship policies for tackling global deforestation and nature degradation”.
However, Mondelēz, previously among the strongest corporate supporters of the legislation, has recently warned that the chocolate industry was already struggling with "record prices and supply shocks."
In their letter on 3 October, the companies added that “clear, predictable, and comprehensive regulations on environmental and human rights responsibilities are important for the EU’s long-term competitiveness."
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Benjamin Fox is a seasoned reporter and editor, previously working for fellow Brussels publication Euractiv. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He heads up the AU-EU section at EUobserver, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Benjamin Fox is a seasoned reporter and editor, previously working for fellow Brussels publication Euractiv. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He heads up the AU-EU section at EUobserver, based in Nairobi, Kenya.