- The EU Parliament has voted to postpone the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by one year after strong opposition to the law from EU member states, export countries, traders, and operators.
- It has also approved a series of amendments put forward by the large center-right European People’s Party (EPP), which called for less stringent requirements.
- In a new report, the NGO Earthsight linked donors linked to illegal deforestation and likely benefits from this amendment to EPP member parties in Germany and Austria, which have called for the revision of the law.
- Supply chain analysts and environmentalists said the changes will open up loopholes undermining forest conservation and facilitating the laundering of illegally sourced commodities in the EU.
Parties members of the European People’s Party (EPP), a large center-right political party, received political donations from influential companies linked to illegal deforestation and which are likely to benefit from changes to a key EU forest protection law, according to a new Earthsight report. Yesterday, the EU Parliament voted to postpone the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) by one year and approved a series of amendments put forward by the EPP calling for less stringent requirements.
Over €1.7 million has been donated to EPP members, including Austria’s Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP) party and Germany’s Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (CDU) party, from companies and shareholders who profit from goods covered by the EUDR and have links to illegal deforestation or are exposed to forest-risk commodities, the report said.
One of the approved amendments involves the creation of a new category of ‘no-risk’ countries, which will be subject to less stringent requirements in their management of forests than countries of ‘low,’ ‘standard,’ and ‘high’ risk. Under this criterion, most EU member states would be considered ‘no-risk,’ as well as China, the U.S., and Russia creating a “dangerous loophole” that facilitates the laundering of products from high-risk to no-risk countries, said Fyfe Strachan, policy and communications lead at Earthsight.
Julia Christian, a campaigner at the EU environmental watchdog Fern, wrote in a press statement that the EU Parliament approved the amendment “without assessing whether these changes are enforceable, how they will impact companies, or whether they will even succeed in tackling deforestation.”
The EPP said in a statement that it wanted to cut “excessive red tape” and “reduce administrative burdens” on European farmers, companies or international trading partners.
The Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP) party, Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (CDU) party, and the European People’s Party (EPP) did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time of publication.
Money in parties’ pockets
One of the earliest opponents of the EUDR within the EU governments was the Austrian agricultural minister Norbert Totschnig, a leading figure of the ÖVP party, who spearheaded a call in March to temporarily suspend and revise the law. In July, Totschnig presented a note to the EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council calling for it to “firmly reconsider the time frame for the application of the deforestation regulation and adequately address serious concerns related to its implementation.”
German members of the EPP from the CDU and the CDU’s sister party, the Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern (CSU), have also criticized the EUDR for its bureaucratic requirements and called for its delay and amendment. Christine Schneider, the sponsor of the EPP’s legislative proposals to amend the law, is a member of the CDU party.
Meanwhile, Earthsight found the ÖVP party received more than €600,000 ($632,000) in political donations since 2018 from companies that import, sell, or trade forest-risk commodities covered by the EUDR. Many of these companies are large multinationals linked to illegal deforestation or exposed to commodities driving the destruction of rainforests in Brazil, Indonesia, and other countries, the report said.
During that time, the party received more than €356,000 ($375,000) in sponsorship payments, advertising revenue, and donations to organizations related to the party from different arms of the Raiffeisen Banking Group. Although banks do not generally have obligations under the EUDR, the bank is a shareholder, bondholder, and creditor of the agribusiness giant Bunge, which has a reputation for sourcing soy from lands linked to illegal deforestation.
The ÖVP also received over €100,000 ($105,000) in advertising revenue during the same period from companies that import or sell forest-risk commodities covered by the EUDR.
The CDU and CSU parties received more than €1.1 million ($1.15 million) since 2018 from companies, or their shareholders, that have exposure to forest-risk commodities covered by the EUDR in their supply chains. The donations primarily came from automotive manufacturing companies such as Mercedes-Benz and the major shareholders in BMW, which have both been linked to deforestation in their leather supply chains.
The Raiffeisen Banking Group, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment.
Strachan said the calls by members of ÖVP and CDU to amend the law were “motivated by self-interest.” Now that the parliament has voted in favor of the delay and referred this case back for negotiations between EU institutions, the Commission should withdraw its proposal, she said. Otherwise, global efforts to combat deforestation will be ruined, she added. “The EPP’s amendments are likely to benefit its political donors but will harm the world’s forests.”
According to a report by the European Commission, a one-year delay in implementing the law will deforest 250,000 hectares (617,000 acres) of forest.
Banner image: Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest and other Brazilian biomes is one of the leading causes of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. The government hopes that by implementing a regulated carbon market, it can slash emissions across most sectors. Image © Victor Moriyama/Greenpeace.
EU delays and weakens anti-deforestation law, adding ‘no-risk’ loophole
Citations:
Earthsight. (2024). Political parties undermining forest protection law have received donations linked to illegal deforestation. Recovered from: https://www.earthsight.org.uk/news/illegal-deforestation-donations
EIA. (2024). Shipping the Forest: Millions of Tons of Illegal Timber from Mozambique, Including Conflict Timber, Are Exported to China for Luxury Furniture. Recovered from: https://eia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/EIA_US_Mozambique_Timber_Report_0424_FINAL_SINGLES-5-13.pdf
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