Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2025 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 as regards certain obligations of operators and traders

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 192(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national Parliaments,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),

After consulting the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (2),

Whereas:

(1) Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) was adopted to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. It lays down rules regarding the placing and making available on the Union market as well as the export from the Union of relevant products, as listed in its Annex I, that contain, have been fed with or have been made using relevant commodities, namely cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood. In particular, that Regulation aims to ensure that those commodities and relevant products are placed or made available on the Union market or exported only if they are deforestation-free, have been produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production and are covered by a due diligence statement.

(2) In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, the Commission, in close cooperation with Member States and other stakeholders, has developed an information system for the submission of due diligence statements (the ‘information system’). Stakeholders have been involved in the development process to ensure that the information system is efficient and in line with the needs of economic operators. The information system was launched on 4 December 2024, allowing operators, traders that are not micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (‘non-SME traders’), and their authorised representatives to submit due diligence statements. However, most recent projections on the number of expected operations and interactions in the information system have led to a substantial reassessment of the load on the system, indicating much higher traffic on the information system than anticipated.

(3) At the same time, the findings of the 2024 report entitled ‘The future of European competitiveness’ indicated that the increasing number and complexity of rules is limiting room for manoeuvre for Union businesses and preventing them from remaining competitive. Concerns about the complexity of rules have also been reported by trade partners. Against that background, certain procedures and requirements laid down in Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 should be simplified and unnecessary regulatory burdens for businesses should be removed, while maintaining the objectives of that Regulation.

(4) Furthermore, as part of the simplification efforts, the administrative burden resulting from obligations on downstream actors that are not micro, small or medium-sized enterprises and on micro or small primary operators producing and placing on the market their own products should be reduced.

(5) In order to provide legal clarity in downstream supply chains, and to reduce further reporting requirements and the corresponding load of the information system, a new category of ‘downstream operator’ should be introduced. The obligations on such downstream operators should be identical to those applicable to traders. Neither downstream operators nor traders should be required to ascertain that due diligence was exercised or to submit due diligence statements, significantly reducing reporting requirements and the number of needed interactions with the information system.

(6) Non-SME downstream operators and non-SME traders have a significant influence on supply chains and play an important role in ensuring that supply chains are deforestation-free. They should therefore still be required to register in the information system. At the same time, the first downstream operator or trader, whether or not it is a small or medium-sized enterprise, should continue to ensure full traceability by collecting reference numbers of due diligence statements and declaration identifiers assigned to micro or small producers. The obligation to collect and keep reference numbers should apply only to the first downstream operator or trader and should not apply to other downstream operators or traders further down in the supply chain.

(7) All operators, regardless of their size, that place relevant products on the market or that export those products fall under the scope of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. This places an administrative burden on micro or small producers that place on the market or export their own products. In order to address the concerns related to operators which are micro or small enterprises producing and placing on the market their own products and to further reduce the load on the information system, it is necessary to introduce a new subcategory of operators to whom the obligation to submit a due diligence statement should not apply. That new subcategory, called ‘micro or small primary operators’, should cover natural persons or micro or small enterprises established in a country classified as low risk in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 that place relevant products on the market or export those products which they themselves produce in that country, meaning that they grow, harvest, obtain from or raise on relevant plots of land, or, as regards cattle, on establishments the relevant commodities contained in the relevant products themselves. Both operators established in or outside the Union should be covered by the definition of micro or small primary operator.

(8) To ensure the efficient achievement of the objectives of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, namely being able to ensure traceability along the supply chain in order to ensure that products placed on the market are deforestation-free, micro or small primary operators should nevertheless be required to submit a one-time simplified declaration in the information system. The information system should issue a declaration identifier upon submission of the simplified declaration by a micro or small primary operator. That declaration identifier should accompany the relevant products that a micro or small primary operator places on the market or exports. In order to maintain the traceability requirements under Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 and to pursue its objectives, the information included in a simplified declaration should enable an automatic risk assessment by the information system, facilitate checks by competent authorities in accordance with the risk-based approach, and should be visible to downstream actors, to the extent possible, in accordance with applicable data protection legislation.

(9) As part of the simplification efforts, the administrative burden resulting from the obligations for micro or small primary operators to submit a one-time simplified declaration under Article 4a of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, as amended by this Regulation, and to collect information under Article 9(1) thereof should be reduced by allowing them to replace the geolocation of plots of land by the postal address of the plots of land or of the establishment from where the relevant commodities that the relevant product contains, or has been made using, were produced, provided that the postal address clearly corresponds to the geographic location of the plots of land or establishment concerned. This gives micro or small primary operators the free choice of providing either the geolocation of the plots of land or the postal address of the plots of land or of respective establishment.

(10) Regulation (EU) 2016/429 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) already subjects primary producers of cattle established in the Union to traceability and reporting requirements equivalent to those established pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. The relevant data are stored in national databases of the Member States. It is, therefore, appropriate to exempt micro or small primary operators from the obligation to submit a simplified declaration, where the required information is already available in such databases, and Member States make available the relevant data in the information system. That exemption should also be applicable to micro or small primary operators in other sectors where the Union or Member States' national legislation provides for equivalent traceability or reporting obligations, provided that the same conditions are fulfilled.

(11) As outlined in the Guidance Document for Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on Deforestation-Free Products (5), in cases where the activities are negligible, and given all circumstances at stake, the principle of proportionality should be respected. Occasional extensive or occasional small-scale grazing in forests should not be considered to be predominantly agricultural use provided that the production and related activities do not have detrimental effect on the habitat of the forest.

(12) To provide legal clarity that all micro, small and medium-sized undertakings, irrespective of their legal form, can benefit from the simplified provisions for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises should be amended to clarify that the legal form should not be relevant for the purpose of determining whether a natural or legal person falls within that definition. This should also be clarified for micro or small primary operators. Moreover, the definition of micro or small primary operators should include operators who exceed the limits of at least two of the three criteria set out in Article 3(1) and (2), first subparagraph, of Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (6) but who can demonstrate that the parts of their balance sheet total, net turnover and average number of employees during the financial year which relate to the relevant commodities and the relevant products do not exceed the limits of at least two of three of those criteria.

(13) Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 lays down provisions related to the review of that Regulation, and it mandates the Commission to present several impact assessments accompanied, if appropriate, by legislative proposals. Given that the date of application of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 was postponed by Regulation (EU) 2024/3234 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7), a potential extension of the scope of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 cannot be assessed without evidence on its application, on its effects on deforestation and forest degradation, on its impact on operators and traders, in particular SMEs, and on trade flows. For those reasons, the obligations related to the impact assessments to be carried out by the Commission provided for in Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 should be removed. Those impact assessments should be covered by the general review of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. The date for the general review referred to in Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 should be changed to 30 June 2030 so that the review could take into account the experience of the enforcement of that Regulation. To reflect the amended obligations on operators, downstream operators and traders, the general review should also evaluate the impact of those amendments on the achievement of the overall objectives of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115.

(14) Ahead of the general review of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 to be carried out by 30 June 2030, in the interest of simplification for operators and traders, the Commission should carry out a simplification review of that Regulation and should present a report by 30 April 2026. The report should evaluate the administrative burden and impact of that Regulation, in particular for micro or small operators. Furthermore, in the report, the Commission should indicate possible ways to address the identified issues, including through technical guidelines, improvements to the IT system, and delegated or implementing acts in accordance with the delegation of powers provided for in Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, and, where appropriate, should accompany the report with a legislative proposal.

(15) The date of application of the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 that lay down obligations on operators, traders and competent authorities, namely those referred to in Article 38(2) of that Regulation, should be postponed by 12 months. This is necessary in order to allow third countries, Member States, operators and traders to be fully prepared, in particular to allow those operators and traders to be in a position to fully comply with their obligations.

(16) In the light of the postponement by 12 months of the date of application set out in Article 38(2) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, the dates in other related provisions, namely the repeal of Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council (8), the provisions on the deferred application of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 to natural persons, micro-undertakings or small undertakings, should be adjusted accordingly. In order to provide sufficient time to align technical developments of the electronic interface based on the European Union Single Window Environment for Customs with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 as amended by this Regulation, the date by which the electronic interface is to be in place should be adjusted accordingly.

(17) Since the objectives of this Regulation, namely simplifying certain reporting obligations and streamlining timelines while preserving the objectives of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, cannot be achieved by the Member States but can only be achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

(18) Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 should therefore be amended accordingly,

(19) This Regulation should enter into force as a matter of urgency on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union in order to ensure that this Regulation enters into force before the current date of application of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115,

(20) In view of the urgency to adopt targeted simplifications as well as to delay the entry into application of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, it is considered to be appropriate to invoke the exception to the eight-week period provided for in Article 4 of Protocol No 1 on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union, annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Amendments to Regulation (EU) 2023/1115

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 is amended as follows:

(3) the title of Chapter 2 is replaced by the following: ‘CHAPTER 2

(5) the following article is inserted: ‘Article 4a Simplified regime for micro or small primary operators

(7) in Article 8, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following: ‘1.   Prior to placing relevant products on the market or exporting them, operators shall exercise due diligence with regard to all relevant products.’

(9) in Article 15, paragraph 5 is replaced by the following: ‘5.   The Commission may facilitate the harmonised implementation of this Regulation, by issuing relevant guidelines, by ensuring continued exchange with experts, stakeholders and all relevant operators, including micro or small primary operators, downstream operators and traders, by developing best practices and by collecting technical feedback from the existing Commission Expert Group Multi-Stakeholder Platform on Protecting and Restoring the World’s Forests, and by promoting adequate exchange of information, coordination and cooperation between competent authorities, between competent authorities and customs authorities, and between competent authorities and the Commission.’

(12) in Article 20, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following: ‘1.   Member States may authorise their competent authorities to reclaim from the operators, downstream operators or traders the totality of the costs of their activities with respect to instances of non-compliance.’

(13) in Article 21 paragraphs 2 and 3 are replaced by the following: ‘2.   Competent authorities shall establish administrative arrangements with the Commission concerning the transmission of information on investigations and the conduct of investigations. Competent authorities shall also communicate to the Commission any significant documented technical errors or significant disruptions arising from the information system referred to in Article 33.

(18) in Article 27, paragraph 3 is replaced by the following: ‘3.   The customs authorities may communicate, in accordance with Article 12(1) of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, confidential information acquired by the customs authorities in the course of performing their duties, or provided to the customs authorities on a confidential basis, to the competent authority of the Member State in which the operator, downstream operator, trader or authorised representative is established.’

(23) Article 35 is replaced by the following: ‘Article 35 Exercise of the delegation

(24) Article 37 is replaced by the following: ‘Article 37 Repeal

(25) Article 38 is replaced by the following: ‘Article 38 Entry into force and date of application

(26) in Annex I, in the table, the line ‘ex 49 Printed books, newspapers, pictures and other products of the printing industry, manuscripts, typescripts and plans, of paper’ is deleted;

(27) Annex II is amended in accordance with Annex I to this Regulation;

(28) the text set out in Annex II to this Regulation is added as Annex III.

Article 2

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 19 December 2025.

For the European Parliament The President R. METSOLA

For the Council The President M. BJERRE

(1) Not yet published in the Official Journal.