After months of intense negotiations, the European Parliament adopted amendments to the European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) on 17 December 2025, which were approved by the EU Council the following day. Finally, on 23 December 2025, the amendments were officially published in the Official Journal of the European Union. As a result, the binding application of the EUDR has been postponed to 30 December 2026, giving all parties concerned another year to implement the EUDR regulations. This decision follows persistent implementation challenges, in particular with the EU’s digital information system, which would not have been technically capable of processing the expected flood of notifications, as all actors along the supply chain would have been subject to reporting obligations.
EUDR POSTPONEMENT & SIMPLIFICATION: THE DETAILS
The revision introduces tangible simplifications: going forward, only the first operators placing timber products on the market will be required to submit declaration, while downstream operators will be exempted. Additional simplifications are envisaged for micro and small primary producers, while the overall effectiveness of the EUDR now applies equally to all companies within the EUTR sector – including small and micro enterprises. By April 2026, the European Commission will also assess whether further simplifications are appropriate and, if necessary, propose corresponding legislative amendments.
OUR ASSESSMENT OF THE UPDATED EUDR
The Brüning Group welcomes this development. Our Sustainability Manager, Florentin Morick, explains: “The postponement and simplification of the EUDR is the right step. The original application framework would have missed the regulation’s core objective: to minimise global deforestation and keep European supply chains free of it. This is because higher deforestation risks exist particularly in countries of the Global South, which must primarily be assessed carefully when products are imported into the EU. It is therefore a step in the right direction that the new regulations significantly reduce administrative efforts without increasing the risk of deforestation. In future, only the first operator placing products on the market will be required to report, while downstream operators will collect and archive information rather than resubmitting. This particularly relieves operators from the third stage of the supply chain onwards, leading to a substantial reduction in bureaucratic overhead. In cases of doubt, on-site inspections ensure traceability, eliminating the need for additional requirements such as generally mandatory GEO coordinates. However, this remains critical in certain cases, such as biochar, where manufacturers depend on data that their suppliers are not obliged to provide.”
THE FUTURE OF THE EUDR
So things remain interesting – and the EUDR continues to be a challenging and dynamic topic. Attention now turns to the European Commission’s simplification review, as well as the revision of the guidelines and FAQs expected in April. We call for it to be clearly stated in writing that woody biomass which does not originate from areas defined as forest does not fall within the scope of the EUDR. For such material – for example landscape conservation and shredder material – no due diligence documentation should be required. In addition, the handling of stocks should be reviewed for further simplification. We will continue to monitor developments closely in order to adapt our EUDR due diligence system accordingly. Our goal remains to ensure transparent and verifiably deforestation-free supply chains and to enable our partners to do the same. Against this background, the Brüning Group will continue to actively contribute to the discussion on a practical, risk-assessment-based implementation of the EUDR.