Brussels Confirms Leather’s Exemption from the EU Deforestation Regulation

In a decision long championed by Europe’s tanning industry, the European Commission has formally confirmed that bovine leather — at every stage of processing — is excluded from the scope of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).

With the publication of the delegated act on 13 July, the Commission endorsed the removal of bovine hides and leather from the regulation, fulfilling a proposal first tabled in draft form on 4 May and put out for public consultation until 1 June. After notification to the Council and the European Parliament, a two-month scrutiny period now applies. It is technically possible, though considered unlikely, that Parliament could request an extension before the deadline. Absent any objection or delay, at the end of the review window on 13 September the act will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and enter into force — without bovine leather in its scope, exactly as UNIC – Concerie Italiane and Cotance have long urged.

The outcome is a significant relief for tanners. Had leather remained inside the EUDR, processors would have faced onerous due-diligence and geolocation obligations stretching back to the farm of origin for every hide — a burden disproportionately heavy for a material that is, in reality, a by-product of the meat industry. The regulation was designed to curb deforestation linked to the expansion of cattle ranching, yet leather sits at the downstream end of a value chain fundamentally separated from meat production decisions.

The exclusion also resolves a structural incoherence in the original text. Because downstream leather products such as shoes, bags and garments were already outside the EUDR’s scope, keeping raw and semi-finished leather inside created a fragmented approach: operators placing leather on the Union market would have faced traceability duties that vanished the moment the material was made into a finished good. Removing leather restores a more coherent, proportionate framework.

For Italy’s tanning district and its European peers, the decision protects both competitiveness and a sustainability narrative leather has worked hard to build. Tanners have increasingly invested in transparency, traceability and environmental performance; being swept into a deforestation law conceived for agricultural expansion risked misrepresenting those efforts and imposing compliance costs with little environmental return.

The Commission’s act now enters its final procedural step. Industry associations will be watching the 13 September milestone, after which the exemption becomes definitive and European leather can trade under a clearer, more rational regulatory regime — one that recognises leather for what it is: a responsibly managed by-product, not a driver of deforestation.

Source: UNIC – Concerie Italiane