EUDR: No time to rest

Last month we published a Q&A video about the EU Deforestation Regulation or EUDR (watch it here if you missed it). Since then, the Commission has proposed extra 12 months of phasing-in time and the European Council has agreed to support the Commission’s proposal to postpone the implementation of EUDR.

Jonas Larsson, Senior Advisor Forestry at Södra Cell: “We would welcome this extension if it is approved, since we are still lacking answers when it comes to various aspects of the process, including country benchmarking and a chance to trial the supporting IT system. We received guidelines and FAQs earlier this month, but still many questions remain unanswered.

“However, this doesn’t mean we can sit back,” he adds. “The 12-month extension still needs to be approved by both the Parliament and the Council, which formally must vote even if they have agreed to support the proposal, and there is still a lot to do. It’s not clear how industries such as pulp will be able to comply with the detailed traceability element of the EUDR. More time to coordinate input from the industry would be good. In Sweden, we are represented by the SFIF, the Swedish Forest Industries Federation, of which Lotta Lyrå, Södra’s President and CEO, is currently Chair. We also contribute to views being collected by Sweden’s government which is also trying to assess the implications for its national industries, so we are monitoring closely the progress on all fronts.

“In the meantime, we’ll continue to work hard to ensure that we are prepared whenever the time comes, and we are here to help customers with their own questions if we can.”

EUDR - Watch the Q & A video