Majority of EU countries ask bloc to scale back deforestation law

Italy

Published Mar 28, 2024

Tridge summary

Twenty EU member countries, led by Austria and including France, Italy, Poland, and Sweden, have urged Brussels to reconsider its anti-deforestation law, which aims to prevent products linked to deforestation, like beef and soy, from entering the European market. They argue that the law adversely affects farmers by limiting their ability to export goods produced on deforested or degraded lands. This request reflects wider resistance to the EU's environmental policies, amid concerns over their impact on farmers and competition from cheaper imports. The European Commission has not yet responded to the call for a revision of the law.

Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by a state-of-the-art LLM model and is intended for informational purposes only. It is recommended that readers refer to the original article for more context.

Original content

Some 20 members of the European Union asked Brussels to scale back and possibly suspend the bloc's anti-deforestation law on Tuesday, saying the policy would harm farmers, in the latest blowback against Europe's environmental agenda, reported Reuters. The EU law aims to root deforestation out of supply chains for beef, soy and other agricultural products sold in Europe, so that European consumers are not contributing to the destruction of global forests from the Amazon to Southeast Asia. Those rules equally apply to European farmers, who will be banned from exporting products cultivated on deforested or degraded woodlands. Agriculture ministers from 20 of the EU's 27 member countries supported a call by Austria to revise the law, at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, Austria's agriculture minister Norbert Totschnig said. "We now urge the Commission for a temporary suspension of the regulation allowing for a feasible implementation accompanied by a revision of the regulation," ...

Source: The Cattle Site