Cepi updates EUDR guidance as 30 December 2026 deadline nears

The EU Deforestation Regulation applies from 30 December 2026, and the Confederation of European Paper Industries (Cepi) now has an updated guidance document on the shelf to help pulp and paper companies meet it. The new edition replaces the version Cepi published in June 2025.

That replacement cycle tells you something about the pace of change. In the space of roughly a year, the regulatory ground under the EUDR has shifted enough that Cepi judged its previous guide obsolete. The new document captures developments up to September 2026, and the list of what it absorbs is long.

What does the new guidance cover?

Cepi says the updated edition covers the main obligations companies must meet once the EUDR applies. It also reflects four sets of developments tracked through September 2026:

• The December 2025 amendment to the Regulation itself.
• The European Commission's May 2026 simplification package.
• The secondary legislation adopted during 2026.
• The updated Commission Guidance and FAQs, plus other Commission publications.

Each of those items matters on its own. The December 2025 amendment changed the Regulation's text; the May 2026 package trimmed compliance expectations; secondary legislation filled in operational detail; the Commission's own guidance and FAQ updates answered questions the legal texts left open. For a value chain as long as pulp and paper's — from forest tract to mill gate to converted product — a single consolidated reading of all four layers is the practical point of the document.

The takeaway: one deadline, 30 December 2026, now sits atop a rulebook that was rewritten in stages across 2025 and 2026, and Cepi's guide is the industry's attempt to read it as one text.

Why did Cepi replace the June 2025 guide?

Cepi frames the document as the pulp and paper industry's shared understanding of its EUDR obligations. That framing is doing real work. A regulation like the EUDR leaves room for interpretation along the value chain, and a sector-level position paper gives every actor — suppliers, mills, converters, traders — a common reference point rather than a patchwork of individual legal readings.

The guide's second stated purpose is practical: it gives guidance on applying the Regulation along the pulp and paper value chain. Cepi developed it for exactly that audience, and the July-to-September 2026 cut-off for incorporated developments signals that the document was finalised only weeks before its release.

The sector wanted one document its members could point to when the compliance questions start. This is that document, at least until the next Commission publication forces another revision.

When and where will companies hear it explained?

Cepi will present the guidance at a dedicated Cepinar in November. That gives member companies a walkthrough of the document ahead of the 30 December 2026 application date — a window of weeks, not months, between the presentation and the day obligations bite.

For compliance teams, the sequence is now fixed: read the consolidated guidance, attend the November Cepinar, and be ready when the EUDR applies on 30 December 2026. The document itself is available via Cepi.

In short: the clock runs out on 30 December 2026, and November's Cepinar is the last scheduled industry checkpoint before it does.