Brussels, 22 May 2025
The European Commission has published the first benchmarking list, which classifies countries according to their ‘low’, ‘standard’, or ‘high’ risk of deforestation.
This country classification takes into account the production of the seven commodities covered by the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), namely cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, and wood. These commodities have been chosen on the basis of a thorough impact assessment identifying them as the main driver of deforestation due to agricultural expansion. The publication of the benchmarking list follows a positive opinion by consensus of all EU Member States.
The risk classification defines the extent of compliance checks that Member States’ competent authorities have to foresee for a country (1% for ‘low risk’, 3% for ‘standard’ and 9% for ‘high risk’). Sourcing from low-risk countries entails simplified due diligence obligations for operators and traders. Concretely, this means that they need to collect information, but not assess and mitigate risks.
The countries which are identified in the high-risk category in this first country benchmarking list are subject to sanctions from the UN Security Council or the Council of the EU on imports or exports of the relevant commodities and relevant products.
The country benchmarking will ensure a simple, fair and cost-efficient implementation of the EUDR, which is already delivering positive developments on the ground to fight deforestation, climate change and biodiversity loss.
Today’s publication of the country benchmarking is an important milestone ahead of the entry into application of the law on 30 December 2025 for large companies and 30 June 2026 for micro- and small enterprises.
Today’s publication of the benchmarking list is accompanied by a Staff Working Document outlining the methodology on which the benchmarking is based.
Source – EU Commission