September 14 was the expected deadline to determine whether the Council or the European Parliament had any objections to the Commission’s delegated act. The scrutiny period has ended, and the measure is now final: bovine hides and leather is excluded from the EUDR. We are now only awaiting its publication in the Official Journal. The international tanning industry for years has pointed out to European institutions that including bovine leather (at every stage of processing) among the products subject to the regulation would not help the fight against deforestation. On the contrary, it would have instead distort the global market to the detriment of EU companies.
Leather is excluded from the EUDR
This story dates back to 2021, when the inclusion of bovine hides was raised during the initial discussions surrounding the regulation. It went through two annual postponements, at a time when the EUDR’s entry into force seemed imminent (with its due diligence requirements that would have burdened tanneries with bureaucratic work that, at times, was still impossible to meet). The situation only began to clear up last spring, when the Commission demonstrated that it understood the concerns of businesses and industry associations. Now, as Euractiv also reports, the Council and Parliament have raised no objections: the exclusion of bovine leather is official.
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