As the EU has applied the “stop-the-clock” mechanism to other legislations, it should use it to suspend the EUDR before it sends European industrial supply chains into a tailspin. Cotance, the association representing national tanning acronyms in Brussels, is among the 26 signatories of the appeal to the Commission “to enable policymakers to carry out a proper and comprehensive assessment of the impact and implementation of the Anti-Deforestation Regulation”. Since it can now be done, let it be done: “The reassessment should aim to identify”, the release continues, “concrete simplification measures and to make the obligations under the EUDR truly implementable”.
Suspending the EUDR
The regulation’s entry into force, after the Commission’s tragic turnaround, looms large and medium-sized companies as early as next Dec. 30. But “the effectiveness of any legislative framework depends on its practicality, legal clarity and predictability”, warns the appeal signed by Cotance. Recent changes proposed by the European Commission prolong a situation of costly uncertainty and unrealistic implementation timeframes. These elements risk undermining both the credibility and practical application of the regulation, while placing European operators in an untenable position of legal and operational uncertainty”.
What needs fixing
One: The relations between EU firms with non-EU firms. Two: Those within European borders between micro and small companies and medium and large companies operating in the same supply chain. Three: a functioning and maintenance of the information system, as the issues to be addressed, moreover, are numerous. “Our sectors continue to experience a serious lack of clarity and legal certainty”, the petitioners conclude, “which is essential for healthy business operations, competitiveness and investment. At stake, moreover, is EUDR’s very ability to hit the goals it has nobly set out to achieve and which everyone shares. Above all, the suspension is urgently needed to “preserve the legitimate environmental goal of combating deforestation, a goal strongly supported by the signatories of this open declaration”.
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