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EU deforestation regulation: Totschnig calls for postponement

by AI | 15.Jul 2024 | Europe in brief AI

In January 2025, the EU Deforestation Regulation is to come into force. It aims to prevent products from entering the European market that have been associated with deforestation during their production. Austria’s Minister of Agriculture is now calling for its implementation to be postponed.

(Archive image) - Totschnig is concerned, as he says, about the reporting obligations for the producers that come with it. Photo: Georg Hochmuth/APA

EU-wide/Brussels – Austria’s Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) is once again calling for the implementation of the EU deforestation regulation to be postponed at a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels on Monday. According to the current plan, this should come into force in January 2025. Totschnig is concerned, as he says, because of the associated reporting obligations for producers.

“It is mid-July, we don’t know exactly how this should be done,” he said to journalists in Brussels. “We have hundreds of thousands of affected individuals who still don’t know what to expect.” He shares the goal of the deforestation regulation, Totschnig said. “The question is, how do I do this smartly so that it doesn’t lead to bureaucratic overhead.”

The EU deforestation regulation aims to prevent products for which deforestation has occurred – i.e., forest area has been permanently converted into agricultural land – from entering the European market. Affected goods include, in addition to wood, also cattle or soy. (15.07.2024)