EU Parliament throws a new spanner in the EUDR works
There was an interesting development in the EUDR saga this week. It appears that the country benchmarking system has been rejected following a motion brought by the European Peoples Party (EPP) which maintained that the country risk profiles lack robustness and lack credibility. The European Commission and Parliament agreed. It's unclear how this could impact the existing timeline for the implementation of EUDR but clearly, if the benchmarking process needs to be reworked, there is high probability of a further delay.
There are currently two schools of thought about how this might play out. One: A new, stricter risk classification is drafted for approval with a ‘no risk’ classification to garner MEP votes. This would likely cause a delay.
Two: Revert to every country as ‘standard’ risk. This could result in a light touch enforcement but EUDR remains as it is, however this would likely cause much consternation amongst countries that already hold a 'low' risk classification.
Reading between the lines, it seems that the future of Europe's climate ambitions are being shaped less by science and necessity and more by the political and ideological differences, which means any clarity on EUDR will only come once it's known which EU faction gains the upper hand in an increasingly existential (and often personal) fight for political ground.