Backlash after European Commission unveils “farcical” EUDR risk category classification scheme

The European Commission has revealed a new category system for its EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Countries will fall under low, standard, and high risk. EU member states have been classified as “low-risk.” Some accuse the EU of showing preferential treatment and have branded the new benchmarking “a farce.”

None of the EU 27 countries will fall in the “high-risk” category under the EUDR. The goal of the EUDR is to guarantee that the products European consumers purchase do not contribute to deforestation or forest degradation worldwide.

Different rules for the different “high, standard, or low risk” categories dictate how strict due diligence rules will be for companies. This means more robust monitoring of those importing agri-food commodities such as cocoa, coffee, soy, palm oil, and beef.

Implementation of the EUDR was delayed late last year, and will now enter into effect on December 30, 2025, for medium and large companies and June 30, 2026, for micro and small enterprises.

The European Parliament decision was a 12-month postponement from the original December 30, 2024 deadline.

Risk-list

However, this week, European officials released a country benchmarking rating to categorize the level of risk. 

“The classification will guide companies in ensuring effective monitoring and enforcement of the regulation to ensure that these products when sold in the EU, do not come from recently deforested land.” 

“It is also designed to incentivize countries to adopt more sustainable agricultural practices and reduce their impact on deforestation and forest degradation,” says the European Commission.

The “low-risk category” is a country having either a net forest loss between 2015-2020 or meeting an outer threshold of 70,000 hectares of loss a year.

Being low-risk means simplified due diligence obligations for operators and traders. They will still need to collect information for due diligence purposes but not assess and mitigate risks.

A minority of global nations are in a high-risk category. These include Belarus, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Myanmar, and the Russian Federation, which will be subject to additional review.

Criticism following the new categories

Agricultural commodities from countries designated as “low-risk” will face few border checks, prompting concern from the global advocacy organization Mighty Earth. It warns that the EU is leaving the door open to goods produced on recently deforested or degraded land and/or grown illegally in protected areas such as wildlife refuges, national forests, and indigenous territories. 

The organization flags that countries with the highest levels of deforestation and degradation, such as Brazil, Bolivia, and DR Congo, have all been left off the “high-risk” register. 

Mighty Earth policy director Julian Oram accuses the EUDR of becoming more about controlling political narratives than about controlling deforestation. 

“Almost since it came into force in June 2023, the European Commission has been doing its utmost to bend the law to the will of those who don’t like it, namely companies and governments that preside over, and benefit from, the destruction of the world’s precious remaining forests,” Oram says.

“The revelation of which countries have been classified under the EUDR risk benchmarking system is the latest and perhaps most bizarre example of this capitulation.” 

“The risk benchmarking was supposed to reflect the likelihood that products such as beef, soy, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, and timber entering the EU originated in areas that have been recently deforested or were produced illegally. Instead, the risk list published shows that it was based on political horse trading and favoritism.”