In order not to place an undue burden on Latvian producers of forestry, food and agricultural products, the Ministry of Agriculture insisted consistently, and argumentatively conviced the European Commission (EC) that the application of the deforestation Regulation * should be postponed.
Following a tireless and insistent request from Latvia and most other EU Member States, the EC has taken note of and listened to the arguments of the Member States and encouraged a one-year extension of the implementation of the deforestation Regulation. On 16 October, the Council of the EU decided that the deadline for implementation of the Regulation should be extended to include compliance with it:
- for large enterprises, from 30 December 2025,
- for small and micro enterprises, from 30 June 2026.
On an objective basis, all necessary preparations for implementing the Regulation have not yet been carried out at European Union (EU) level. In June 2023, the deforestation Regulation entered into force with the aim of minimising the shrinking and degradation of forest areas in the world. At the same time, this Regulation imposes a disproportionate heavy administrative burden on EU Member States, including Latvian, cattle growers and food producers, as well as traders. Moreover, until the date of application of this Regulation, all preparations have not been made by the EC to enable the EU Member States to put it into practice.
The Minister for Agriculture, Armands Krauze argues: "I am truly pleased that the Council of the EU has listened to the views of Latvia and many more Member States and has taken the decision to postpone the implementation of the Regulation for 12 months, and I very much hope that the European Parliament will also take such a decision. On a global scale, European Union and agriculture do not contribute to deforestation or forest degradation as compared to other regions of the world which export their products to Europe. The application of the Regulation will reduce directly the competitiveness of European Union and Latvian producers, as production costs will grow and the administrative burden on farmers, timber and food producers will increase significantly."
The requirements of the deforestation Regulation, if supported by the European Parliament, will have to be met by all European Union (EU) producers from 2026 onwards. In third countries, operators wishing to export certain goods to the EU, such as wood, cattle, palm oil, cocoa, coffee, soya, rubber and derived products such as leather, chocolate, tyres or furniture, will be affected by the requirements of the Regulation.
However, by protecting its market from goods not produced to the highest sustainability standards, the European Union will impose an excessive additional burden on EU producers. The extensive compliance requirements of the deforestation Regulation – without appropriate measures and guidelines prepared by the EC – will be very difficult to implement. Any economic operator or trader, operating on the EU market or exporting, will have to be able to demonstrate that the goods have not been produced from raw materials, from newly deforested land, nor has their extraction contributed to forest degradation. Proving (geolocation and legality determination) will require the collection, storage, processing and verification of very large amounts of data and documents. This will both increase production costs in the EU and on global markets by lowering competitiveness and significantly increase and complicate imports of raw materials, which will also have to be checked.
In order to implement the requirements of the Regulation successfully, and without jeopardising the operation of supply chains, it is critical that a national risk assessment, developed by the EC, and a functioning information system for the administration and control of the deforestation Regulation are made available. It is only after such a system has been built that obligations and responsibilities may be imposed on producers. Setting up such an information system across the EU is complex and requires a common understanding of its application in all Member States. Latvia and many EU Member States had reasonable doubts as to whether the system could still be built by 30 December of this year, which would be absolutely necessary if implementation of the Regulation started in January next year.
The Ministry of Agriculture calls on the European Parliament to support the position of the Council of the EU and to decide on extending the start of implementation of the Regulation. This would provide certainty, predictability and sufficient time for implementation of the Regulation and allow the necessary assessment IT systems to be set up as well as for Member States to prepare to meet the requirements of the Regulation.