Nová legislativa EU v rámci boje s odlesňováním

New EU legislation to combat deforestation

Thanks to the attention now being paid to the carbon tariff (CBAM), further environmental legislation[1] aimed at so-called deforestation-free products, or products whose production will not lead to further deforestation or degradation of land and forests, has been approved almost unnoticed. The legislation has been adopted in the form of a regulation and will therefore not require national implementation to be in force. The main part of the regulation will enter into force on 30 December 2024.

The new rules target operators who place selected products on the EU market (i.e. produce directly in the EU or import from third countries) or export from the EU. The products are defined, as in the case of CBAM, by means of the Combined Nomenclature codes and are in particular the following groups of commodities:

• Cattle
• Cocoa
• Coffee
• Oil palm
• Rubber (including e.g. tyres)
• Soya
• Wood

Obliged entities will be required to report on a regular basis, among other things, the geolocation of all land on which the selected products are produced. If the production of these products results in deforestation or degradation of land or forests, they cannot be placed on or exported from the EU market at all. It will therefore be necessary to trace the exact origin of each product, and the regulation also provides for monitoring of the state of the land or forests back to 31 December 2020.

Although the regulation introduces only administrative obligations, the penalties for infringements are quite severe. Member States can apply penalties ranging from confiscation of goods, to exclusion from public tenders, to import/export bans. It is also possible to impose a financial penalty of 4% of the total annual turnover throughout the Union for a financial year.

We therefore recommend not to underestimate the preparation for the new legislation and, as with CBAM, to set up thorough internal and external communication processes.

If you have any questions, please contact the authors of this article or the EY team you are working with.

Authors:

Jakub Kašuba

Pavol Bezek

[1] Regulation No 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council