Europe’s trees are having a nightmare 2025.

As the European Union reels from its worst wildfire season on record, two different EU laws aimed at protecting forests this week fell victim to the anti-red tape wave sweeping Brussels.

On Tuesday, Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall announced that the European Commission planned to delay the implementation of its flagship anti-deforestation law.

Then, just hours later, lawmakers voted to reject a separate law designed to monitor forests’ health and resilience to climate change.

“Between Forest Monitoring and the one-year delay of the [EU Deforestation Regulation], this is a dark day for European forests,” said Socialists and Democrats Member of the European Parliament Eric Sargiacomo.

Forest ecosystems are home to over half of the world’s terrestrial species and, as natural absorbers of carbon dioxide, they play a crucial role in combating climate change. Protecting them has therefore been a central pillar of the EU’s environmental policy. But as the EU’s priorities shift toward industrial competitiveness and defense, support for forest protections has waned.

Announcing the proposed delay of the anti-deforestation rules, Roswall cited issues with the IT system handling businesses’ due diligence statements as the rationale. But the move falls in step with a long-standing demand from the center-right European People’s Party, the bloc’s biggest political group and one of the loudest agitators for slashing EU regulations.

The law — which requires companies to police their supply chains to make sure any commodities they use, such as palm oil, beef or coffee, have not contributed to deforestation — was adopted in 2023 and already delayed by a year in 2024 following calls by businesses saying they needed more time to comply.

This week’s announcement is seen as the latest in a long string of actions by the Commission since late last year to weaken or delay environmental rules passed under the European Green Deal, part of a grand push to boost the global competitiveness of European industry.

In a second blow to Europe’s trees, later that Tuesday MEPs voted against proposed EU forest monitoring rules, following motions to reject the law presented by the center-right EPP, the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists and the far-right Patriots for Europe group.

It spells a complicated way forward for the law, which sets out rules for collecting data on the health of Europe’s forests, with the goal of improving management and protecting them from climate change.

“Without the detailed, specific evidence on Europe’s forests this law would provide, it will be immeasurably harder to support forest owners to adapt to the climate crisis and secure a sustainable wood supply for industry,” said Kelsey Perlman, a campaigner at the forest NGO Fern.

“Poorer information will inevitably lead to unhealthier forests,” she added.

EPP claims victory

Both developments are being claimed as wins by the EPP, which sees the laws as antithetical to the EU’s ongoing simplification drive.

The EPP has “protected foresters from unnecessary paperwork by rejecting the Monitoring Framework for Resilient European Forests,” the group said in a press statement, having voted with right-wing and far-right groups to reject the law. That rejection still has to go to a plenary vote, but the outcome is likely to be the same.

“Ursula von der Leyen declared 25 percent less bureaucracy,” said MEP Stefan Köhler, referring to a promise from the Commission president — who also hails from the EPP — to create a “more favorable” business environment through an “unprecedented simplification effort.”

“The Commission should therefore recall 100 percent of [the forest monitoring law],” Köhler added.

As for the EU’s deforestation rules, the Commission’s push to delay shows that “our consistent criticism has finally been taken seriously,” said EPP MEP Alexander Bernhuber. But a delay isn’t enough, he added, calling for “substantial changes” to be delivered in the “coming weeks.”

That’s got fire alarm bells ringing on the left flank of the Parliament.

“European forests are burning, and the EPP, allied with the far right, prefers to play the arsonist by blocking all European legislation aimed at sustainable forest management,” said Sargiacomo, the Socialist MEP.

“Once again EPP proved that they prioritize populist gains instead of taking responsibility,” said Swedish centrist lawmaker Emma Wiesner of the forest monitoring vote, who led work on the file.

Turn it off and on again

The Commission, for its part, on Tuesday stressed the importance of the EU’s anti-deforestation push and cited an issue with the IT system that deals with the submission of businesses’ due diligence statements as the rationale for postponing. It wouldn’t be able to handle all the notifications coming from economic operators, said a Commission official.

“This is a first of a kind legislation in terms of the scope and the sophistication of the provisions in the EUDR,” said the official. “As always, when you have no blueprint, you have a great number of uncertainties in the design of the implementation mechanisms, and this is particularly true when it comes to IT systems.”

Business groups have long complained about the impracticality of the EU’s system for proving they’re compliant.

But Green groups and MEPs are having none of it. “This would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic,” said ClientEarth lawyer Michael Rice in a press statement. “The Commission is making a fool of itself by using its own inadequate IT system as an excuse to delay the world’s most important forest law for a second time in 12 months.”

The Commission also had to bat away accusations of caving to pressure from upset trade partners like the United States and major palm oil exporter Indonesia.

In a joint statement issued by the EU and the U.S. last month, formalizing their tariff truce, the EU made a vague promise to address U.S. concerns regarding the EU’s deforestation law.

Tuesday’s announcement also came one day after the EU finalized a new trade agreement with major palm oil exporter Indonesia — whose foreign affairs ministry said last week it was hoping for new flexibility in the law.

“Receiving this news on the same day that we learn of the signing of a free-trade agreement with Indonesia favoring palm oil is more than disturbing,” said Green MEP Marie Toussaint. “After bowing her head to Donald Trump, is Ursula von der Leyen ready to sacrifice the European model to every foreign whim?”

Louise Guillot contributed to this report.