EUDR April 2026 Simplification Package — What to Expect

EUDR Simplification Package — April 2026

The European Commission is legally required, under the December 2025 targeted revision of the EUDR, to deliver a simplification review by 30 April 2026. As of late April, the package has not yet been published, and on 27 April 2026 the Commission confirmed it will arrive slightly after the deadline.

What the Commission Said on 27 April 2026

At the European Commission's midday press briefing in Brussels, spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen addressed journalists' questions on the package. Two messages stood out:

• The package will be presented "in the next days" — but, as Itkonen noted, "it's not Friday". The 30 April deadline will be missed by a small margin.
• The regulation itself will not be reopened: "We will not reopen the European Union deforestation regulation."

Source: EC midday press briefing of 27/04/2026 (audiovisual.ec.europa.eu).

Expected Contents of the Package

According to Commission statements and industry briefings, the package consists of four instruments — none of which require reopening the EUDR text:

1. Review report — the Commission's own assessment of EUDR implementation challenges and recommendations, submitted to the European Parliament and the Council.
2. Updated FAQs and guidance — practical clarifications addressing operator and trader questions, to be incorporated into the existing Commission Q&A document and Guidance Document.
3. Delegated act on product scope — amending Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 to refine the list of in-scope products. This builds on the December 2025 removal of printed products (HS code "ex 49").
4. Implementing act on the IT system — revising the Implementing Regulation governing the EUDR Information System, the platform through which due diligence statements are submitted.

The exact substance of each instrument remains to be confirmed when the package is formally adopted.

Germany's Parallel Push — BMLEH Proposals (30 March 2026)

On 30 March 2026, the German Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Home Affairs (Bundesministerium für Landwirtschaft, Ernährung und Heimat, BMLEH) submitted its own simplification proposals to the Commission. The German government framed its position as one of "effective global forest protection without undermining competitiveness".

Key German proposals:

• Regional collective reporting instead of individual farm declarations — relieving small producers of one-by-one geolocation submissions.
• Lighter information requirements for imports from countries classified as low deforestation risk.
• Limit checks and sanctions to the first placing on the market — concentrating enforcement at the entry point rather than along the entire downstream chain.
• Legality verification narrowed to EUDR-relevant requirements only, rather than open-ended host-country legal compliance.
• Centralised EU tools from the Commission for uniform implementation across Member States.
• Practical clarification of the simplifications already agreed in the December 2025 revision.

Federal Minister Alois Rainer: "We can achieve effective global forest protection without undermining our companies' competitiveness."

Source: BMLEH press release 031/2026 (bmleh.de).

What This Means for Operators

The package shapes the day-to-day implementation of EUDR but does not change the underlying obligation. Practical implications:

• The legally binding deadlines remain 30 December 2026 (large and medium operators) and 30 June 2027 (small and micro operators, non-timber). See the deadline tracker.
• Operators sourcing from low-risk countries should expect lighter information requirements and a simplified due diligence statement — but the exact threshold is set by the delegated act, not by the regulation.
• The product-scope delegated act may add or remove HS codes from Annex I; companies should re-check their product list against the published version once available.
• The IT system implementing act will affect how due diligence statements are submitted and how reference numbers flow downstream. Engineering teams integrating with the EUDR Information System should track the implementing act closely.
• The political signal from the Commission is that simplification is happening through instruments below the level of the regulation, and that the core obligation is settled.

Broader Context

This package sits alongside the broader Omnibus simplification agenda formally adopted by the EU on 24 February 2026, which amends key EU sustainability directives. The Member State pressure for EUDR simplification is led by countries with significant forestry and agricultural sectors — Germany, Austria, Finland, Sweden — whose operators face the largest implementation costs.

The December 2025 EUDR amendment already delivered the headline changes: a one-year postponement, removal of printed products from scope, and simplified due diligence for downstream operators and for new categories of small primary operators in low-risk countries.

What to Watch Next

• The formal publication of the four instruments (likely first half of May 2026).
• The text of the delegated act on Annex I — which products are added or removed.
• The implementing act on the Information System and any changes to the technical specification.
• Member State responses, particularly whether the German proposals are reflected in the final guidance.
• Industry and NGO reactions — see the industry reactions page.

For a structured legal analysis of the EUDR text, see eudr.live. For practical compliance steps under the new deadlines, see eudr.solutions.