BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union agreed to delay by a year the introduction of new rules to ban the sale of products that lead to massive deforestation, caving in to demands from several producer nations from across the globe and domestic opposition within the 27-nation bloc.

The European Union's new anti-deforestation rules will be delayed by one year but no major changes will be made to the content of the legislation, European decision makers agreed on Tuesday evening.

A major European Union law aimed at curbing deforestation by requiring importers to prove their worldwide supply chains are not causing more trees to be felled has been pushed back to Dec. 30, 2025.

On Tuesday evening, negotiators from the Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement to delay implementing new EU rules to prevent deforestation. Large companies will now have until December 30,

Proposed legislation had been met with widespread pushback from agricultural giants like Brazil and Indonesia, as well as EU countries such as Austria and Finland

Negotiators for EU institutions agreed a compromise on Tuesday on a ban on the import of commodities linked to deforestation, which will be delayed by a year but without changes proposed by EU lawmakers.

The centre-right European People’s Party is claiming credit for a one-year delay to a regulation blocking EU market access for products linked to deforestation, although it failed in its attempt to further water down the law despite support from the far-right.