The Employers’ Union requests an amendment to the EU regulation in the fight against deforestation

Bratislava – Employers associated with the Republic Union of Employers (RÚZ) warn of the extensive negative consequences of the implementation of the European Union regulation on the accessibility of commodities and products related to deforestation and forest degradation in the EU market – the EUDR regulation. Although its application is planned for the end of the current calendar year, the high administrative and financial demands on businesses in individual member countries of the Union, including Slovakia, are already evident. This was stated by RÚZ spokesperson Petra Podhorcová, as reported by TASR.

RÚZ warns that the legal regulation is disproportionate, administratively demanding, and legally unclear. It is set to be applied in just a few months.

“Even today, we encounter the absence of a unified interpretation of the regulation, the dysfunctionality of key elements such as the risk assessment system, insufficient technical and methodological guidance from the EU, and other fundamental shortcomings in its implementation, which complicate practical preparation for its enforcement for both European and Slovak businesses. At the same time, companies must incur high costs for administration and the implementation of necessary systems, which causes them numerous problems in the current situation,” explained RÚZ Vice President Robert Spišák.

However, according to him, the situation will worsen once the regulation begins to be applied. RÚZ emphasizes that the legal regulation represents a burden primarily for small and medium-sized enterprises, which practically do not have the capacity for a large administrative burden in the form of conducting due diligence and geolocation tracking of the origin of raw materials, as stipulated by the regulation.

“The specific impacts of the regulation’s implementation on trade, the availability of raw materials, and the competitiveness of European companies will only be clear after its full implementation. However, it is already evident that there are still many questions, uncertainties, and the wording in which the EUDR regulation is to be applied is considered complicated and disproportionate by several stakeholders in relation to the obligations that arise for the affected entities,” the vice president clarified.

Therefore, RÚZ calls on the European Commission and national authorities to amend and simplify the EUDR regulation so that its goals can be achieved in an effective manner that is as least burdensome as possible for the affected entities. It proposes a set of measures that would allow the goals of the regulation to be met without a significant negative impact on the competitiveness of European businesses.

These include, for example, postponing the enforceability of the regulation by at least one year, introducing a “zero risk” category for countries with stable or increasing forest areas, simplifying obligations for countries with low deforestation risk, or easing traceability requirements for mixed products, which involve particularly complicated processes.

RÚZ also recommends introducing a gradual transition period for businesses without sanctions and responsibility only for the first link in the supply chain that brings the commodity to the EU market, not for every subsequent link in the supply chain. (June 10)