Objection pursuant to Rule 115(2) and (3): Deforestation Regulation - list of countries presenting a low or high risk

Through this objection under Rule 115(2) and (3), Parliament challenges Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1093, which lays down the list of countries presenting a low or high risk of producing commodities linked to deforestation under Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. Parliament states that the proposed risk categorisation relies on outdated data, primarily FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment submissions predating 2020, and fails to reflect current land-use dynamics, forest degradation and governance developments since the cut-off date of 31 December 2020. It argues that the methodology lacks transparency in how risk factors are weighted, does not account for regional variability within countries, and uses relative and absolute thresholds (0.2 % annual forest area loss and 70 000 hectares) without clear rationale, noting that certain high-deforestation countries such as the United States fall just below the absolute threshold. Parliament further states that having only three risk categories is insufficient to differentiate countries with vastly different deforestation risk and that the absence of clear pathways to change categorisation undermines the Regulation's role as a positive incentive mechanism.