EUDR: Nothing definite, but leather may have won exclusion
Reports from a number of sources suggest the global leather industry’s work to force change to the scope of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (regulation) may be about to pay off.
The regulation will impose strict traceability obligations on companies placing products linked to cocoa, coffee, cattle, palm oil, rubber, and wood on the EU market. They must be able to show that their products have no link to illegally deforested land.
EUDR was adopted almost three years ago, but its application, originally set for December 2024, has been delayed. The regulation is currently scheduled to come into application for large operators at the end of December this year, with an extension of six months for smaller companies.
Following protests in many quarters, the Commission agreed to carry out a review of EUDR and promised to make this review public before the end of April 2026. Just before the deadline, it said it would share the review’s findings in a five-part package.
One of these packages will be a ‘delegated act’, which will allow the European Commission to update the EUDR legislation, but without going through the full legislative process again. This means the main EUDR text will remain in place and the December 2026 timeline will hold.
But the delegated act will allow for important changes. For example, reports suggest that soap containing palm oil and instant coffee, which were previously excluded from the scope of EUDR, will now be included. In contrast, leather may now be excluded.
News agency Reuters has said EU officials have told it leather’s exclusion is likely to be one of the changes. This would mark a significant success for the global leather industry, which has campaigned long and hard for leather to remain outside EUDR’s scope.
The industry’s main argument has always been that there is no link between leather and deforestation, calling on academic research from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies at the University of Pisa to demonstrate this.
Industry leaders have warned that there is still no official confirmation of leather’s exclusion from the scope of EUDR and that, even if the review does include this welcome step, there would still be a long process ahead. The delegated act would need the approval from the EU Parliament and the EU Council (made up of the heads of government or other senior ministers representing the 27 member states).
Most agree, though, that the noises coming from Brussels have been very encouraging.
