The European Commission claims to have simplified “the administrative burden” that operators and traders will face when the EU Deforestation Regulation starts to come into force at the end of this year. By LEATHERBIZ.

In mid-April, the Commission published new guidance documents that it said contained “clarifications and simplifications” of the requirements, with updates to its guidance and to the important set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) relating to EUDR. It explained that these changes reflected input from member states, partner countries, businesses and industry.

It said these additions would “provide companies, EU member states’ authorities and partner countries with additional simplified measures and clarifications on how to demonstrate that their products are deforestation-free”.

The European Commission has calculated that these new measures will lead to a 30% reduction in the administrative cost and burden for companies. “This will ensure a simple, fair and cost-efficient implementation of this key piece of legislation,” it added.

Simplification measures include companies now being allowed to submit due diligence statements annually, instead of for every shipment or batch of products they place on the EU market.

Also, large companies downstream will be able to use the reference numbers of due diligence statements collected from their upstream suppliers for use in their own submissions.