German forest owners have welcomed a proposal by the federal government to further simplify the EU regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR), focusing on reducing administrative requirements.<\/p>\n
The initiative, submitted by the Bundesministerium f\u00fcr Ern\u00e4hrung und Landwirtschaft to the European Commission, targets practical adjustments to the current framework.<\/p>\n
Andreas Bitter, president of AGDW \u2013 Die Waldeigent\u00fcmer, said additional changes are needed beyond earlier EU-level revisions.<\/p>\n
The association is calling for the removal of company-specific reporting obligations for forest owners, arguing that this would simplify implementation and reduce administrative burden at the operational level.<\/p>\n
It also highlighted the need for further relief for commercial forestry businesses, noting that many medium-sized family operations are currently treated in the same way as large companies under the regulation.<\/p>\n
The German proposal follows earlier amendments to the EUDR that introduced simplifications to due diligence requirements and adjusted obligations along the supply chain, including reduced requirements for smaller operators and downstream actors.<\/p>\n
Under the revised timeline, the main obligations of the regulation are now scheduled to apply from the end of 2026 for larger companies and mid-2027 for smaller operators, giving additional time for implementation.<\/p>\n
AGDW said the federal government should continue pushing within the EU for further adjustments to ensure the regulation can be implemented in a practical way by forest owners and forestry businesses.<\/p>\n
The European Commission is expected to carry out a further review of the regulation by April 2026, assessing its impact and identifying additional simplification measures.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n