EU agrees on rainforest rules

The EU countries and the EU Parliament are now finally in agreement on the new rules to combat deforestation of rainforests. An agreement on Tuesday evening means that the introduction will be postponed for a year – but without changing the legislation otherwise.

The so-called deforestation directive had become stuck in an intense struggle where conservative parties in the EU Parliament had wanted to ease the requirements at the last minute, despite the parties actually being in agreement on the rules already last year.

Now, the struggle has instead landed in a compromise, after final negotiations led by the EU's new Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall on Tuesday evening.