Nová legislativa EU v rámci boje s odlesňováním – novela národní úpravy

In the sixth episode of our series on legislation to combat deforestation from September of last year, we informed you about the upcoming amendment to the act on placing timber products on the market, which aims to provide for the necessary institutes and details at the national level. In the meantime, the bill has nearly completed the legislative process and is now awaiting to be signed by the President.

Various clarifications have been adopted and necessary legislative-technical changes have also gained attention. However, the main points that were criticized remain unchanged. The level of penalties, which was often deemed insufficient during the legislative process, has been preserved.

Similarly, the fragmented regulation of the competent authorities, which was criticized during the consultation process, remains largely intact. It still holds that there are 10 different authorities competent for specific tasks.

A minor simplification is that the Czech Trade Inspection Authority will itself collect the fines that it imposes. However, for other competent authorities, the cascading nature of powers in potential misdemeanor proceedings has been maintained. A small change to reflect the renaming of the Institute for Forest Management to the National Forestry Institute, which occurred at the beginning of this year, has also been implemented.

An important new development is the postponement of the coming-into-effect of the amendment from July 1, 2025, to January 1, 2026, in connection with the delayed application of the EU regulation itself.

Although the national legislation appears to be resolved, many questions regarding the regulation remain open. Therefore, we recommend not to postpone preparations for fulfilling the significantly complex obligations until the last minute.

Authors:

Jan Turek

Veronika Juhasová

Matěj Plšek