A strategic meeting at the European Parliament to urge the Commission to exclude cowhide from the EUDR . On April 8, Italy and UNIC – Concerie Italiane , at a meeting facilitated by Cotance (the Brussels-based association representing national tanning associations), presented to the EU the concerns of the supply chain, which sees the anti-deforestation regulation as an undue burden,  since the material is not a driver of deforestation. By La Conceria.

“Hides and leather should be excluded from Annex I of the EUDR not because we are against forest protection,” commented MEP Dario Nardella , organizer of the meeting, “but because a good law should target those truly responsible for deforestation, not those who transform waste into a circular and durable material .”

Global instances

Cotance President Manuel Ríos participated in the sectoral delegation . He was joined by UNIC President Fabrizio Nuti and Vice President Piero Rosati , along with councilors Roberto Lupi , Michele Matteoli , and Marco Blasio , as well as Francesco Matelli , president of the Leather Arbitration Chamber. Since the exclusion of bovine leather from the EUDR is an urgent matter not only for the European supply chain, but for global ones, representatives of the diplomatic corps in Brussels of the United States , Canada , Australia , India , and Vietnam were also present at the meeting .

The topics

The EU Commission and the Directorate-General for the Environment were therefore able to first listen to a presentation by Luca Marrucci of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa , one of the authors of the study that scientifically demonstrates that cowhide is not a driver of deforestation. Then, representatives of business associations and diplomats expressed their concerns about a regulation that is extremely difficult for SMEs to comply with and that simply threatens to shift trade routes currently directed towards Europe to other continents . “The Delegated Act will be issued in the coming weeks,” Nardella concluded. “I wanted to build this discussion now, with the Commission at the table, because that’s when decisions are made.”