Posted on July, 09 2025

The objection, tabled by MEP Alexander Bernhuber (EPP), calls into question the risk classification criteria that are essential for the law’s implementation, by advocating for the introduction of a category of “insignificant or negligible risk” - absent from the legal text of the EUDR. This would require a revision of the law, which would further delay the application, cause more burden for companies that have already set up systems, and undermine the legal certainty that businesses urgently need. It would also weaken the EU’s ability to act decisively on climate and biodiversity loss and human rights violations.

“Parliament seems to be blind to the ongoing climate crisis, putting the EUDR’s credibility and the EU’s climate leadership at risk, and sending the wrong signal at the worst possible time as global deforestation rates spiral out of control,” said Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, Manager, Forests at WWF European Policy Office. “The European Commission must now stay the course and implement the EUDR—not be distracted by this political posturing.”

The vote comes at a time when the European Environment Agency warns of an above-average wildfire season, with blazes already underway in Italy and across Southern Europe, and sky-rocketing economic losses from weather- and climate-related extremes. Intact forests are one of our best lines of defence against escalating climate impacts. 

“The EUDR was a historic achievement—backed by 1.2 million citizens, numerous companies, and civil society organisations—showing that the EU is serious about cleaning up its supply chains. Undermining it now is not only irresponsible, but it is dangerously out of step with science and public expectation, putting into question the willingness of EU Member States and institutions to really act against deforestation. Any backtracking now, under pressure from narrow political interests, risks eroding that legacy before implementation even begins,” concluded Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove.

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) entered into force in 2023 and is set to apply from the end of 2025. A key component of the EUDR is the country benchmarking system, designed to categorise countries as low, standard, or high risk—guiding the level of scrutiny and reporting obligations for products entering the EU but also determining, how many checks and controls EU Member States need to carry out on companies and products (between 1-9% depending on the risk category).

In May 2025, the European Commission published the first country risk classification (‘benchmarking’) list after it had been agreed with EU Member States -  the final piece that made the framework for the EUDR implementation complete.

In the benchmarking, only Russia, Belarus, Myanmar, and North Korea are flagged as “high risk”.  A majority of countries can be found in the low risk category, including all EU Member States. Nevertheless, it’s important to point out that the EUDR has no “green lanes”, with benchmarking meant to guide, not to grant exemptions. Companies remain fully responsible for ensuring the products they want to place on the EU market are free from deforestation, no matter the risk category of the country they source from.

This push comes just months before the EUDR becomes applicable (after a delay of 12 months) in December 2025, and before the country risk benchmarking will be updated by the European Commission in 2026. 

The vote came just days after 18 EU (mainly agriculture) ministers sent a letter to the European Commission, asking for a further simplification of the EUDR. WWF had emphasised that the revision scheduled in 2028 was perfectly timed to adapt the law to potential challenges, but that these can only be assessed realistically once the EUDR has actually been put into action.