2024 review: Second Von der Leyen Commission: The Green Deal is still on track

09 / 01 / 2025

This year 2024 was marked by the elections to the new European Parliament that took place on June 9 and the subsequent formation in the autumn of the new European Commission.

The so-called second Von der Leyen Commission was approved by the European Parliament on November 27, 2024, in a vote in Strasbourg in which Members of the European Parliament gave their vote of confidence to the new team presented by President Von der Leyen.

In her speech to the plenary session of the European Parliament, Von der Leyen presented her new team and set out her vision for Europe for the next five years. She stressed that freedom is the main driving force of the EU and reminded her audience of the need to cultivate and protect this freedom, which means making decisions.

These decisions will be guided by the first major initiative that the new Commission is preparing to present: a compass for competitiveness. According to the President, “this compass will be based on the three main pillars of the Draghi report: (i) The first is to close the innovation gap with the United States and China; (ii) The second is to develop a joint plan for decarbonization and competitiveness; (iii) The third is to strengthen security and reduce dependence”.

The composition of the new Commission team and several of its functions will directly influence the evolution of EU forest-related policies.

In this regard, 2024 has been a year largely characterized by developments with respect to the EU Regulation on Deforestation (EUDR), which was scheduled to enter into force and be implemented in January 2025, although the EU institutions have finally agreed to a one-year postponement of its implementation.

In addition, the European Commission has committed to finalizing the country benchmarking as soon as possible and at the latest by June 30, 2025, as well as to the opening of the reporting system in which companies will register their due diligence declarations.

This body has also assumed responsibility for providing further clarification, exploring additional simplifications and streamlining reporting and documentation obligations to reduce them to the minimum necessary.In the coming months the focus should be on simplification and addressing the practical challenges associated with the implementation of the EUDR.

Carbon credits

On the other hand, the Carbon Sequestration Certification Framework was approved in April and is expected to be operational by 2026. For the time being, there is a text with the general framework and the main rules, but from now on it is necessary to frame it in the different sectors such as forestry, agriculture, industry, etc. and to develop the methodology to be followed to generate a credit.

All this will be carried out by the European Commission by means of delegated acts as soon as the group of experts working on it reaches an agreement and a final position on the matter. To this end, several experts are holding meetings to discuss the rules and methodologies by sector or sub-sector to generate such credits.

This has been a topic that has generated great interest in the forestry sector, so the USSE has held or participated this year in at least three events that have revolved around carbon markets and opportunities for the forestry sector in this area; events that have been very well received among professionals in the sector and in which it has been seen that there are already underway different initiatives that have established or are trying to establish carbon markets in the regions represented in the USSE.

As for the Regulation on forest monitoring, there has been hardly any progress this year and it remains to be seen how the new European Commission and Parliament will take up this issue during the next year, which will be crucial in this respect.

Interesting year for the USSE

Regarding the Nature Restoration Act, it was passed during the first half of this year and aims to establish measures to restore at least 20% of the EU's land and marine areas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.

So, it now remains to implement the law and for this each state has to develop its national restoration plan and they have an obligation imposed by the law itself that the preparation of the restoration plan should be open, transparent, inclusive and effective and that the public, including all relevant stakeholders, should have early and effective opportunities to participate in its preparation.

It has therefore been an interesting and intense year for the USSE at the activity level, and it remains to prepare for this new legislature of the new Commission and Parliament that promises to be equally intense in which they have already announced their policy orientations for 2024-2029 “Maintaining our quality of life: food security, water and nature: ‘The Green Deal is still on course’”.

Leire Salaberria
Managing Director of USSE

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