On 10 October 2024, the European Parliament’s (EP) Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) fast-tracked the European Commission’s (EC) proposal to amend the implementation timeline for the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), under the urgent procedure. The EC proposal would postpone the EUDR’s entry into force by one year until 30 December 2025.

The ordinary legislative procedure requires the EP, and in the present case its ENVI committee, to go through the EC’s proposal, amending it, and sending it to the Council of the European Union.

In normal circumstances, ENVI would have held votes on amendments to the legislative proposal, as well as the text taken as a whole, before forwarding it to the EP’s plenary. Nevertheless, ENVI’s recourse to the urgent procedure means that the proposal will be directly voted upon in plenary – likely during the 13 – 14 November session. This may allow a revision of the EUDR implementation timeline before its scheduled entry into force next 30 December.

Interestingly, despite not voting on the legislative proposal, ENVI did discuss it on 14 October. Certain parliamentarians even noted that the EC’s legislative proposal opens an opportunity for amendments to any section of the EUDR. As such, it cannot be excluded that EU legislators may now seek to modify other aspects of the EUDR.