After Copacel now it's the turn of Intergraf, the European association of national printing federations, to denounce the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). This text, which imposes stricter traceability obligations on wood-derived products, is due to come into force on December 30, 2025 for companies with more than 250 employees, and one year later for SMEs.
A printing industry ill-prepared to manage millions of items of data
Intergraf points out that the European printing sector comprises some 100,000 companies, 95% of which employ fewer than 20 people. In a fragmented value chain, reporting and data transmission tasks are likely to multiply as products move between suppliers, printers, converters and distributors. According to earlier estimates by the paper industry, quoted by Intergraf, a book could contain up to 300,000 separate forest parcels, each of which may need to be associated with a DDS identifier.
Processing this information, integrating it into existing systems and transmitting it in a reliable, documented way is, understandably, an insurmountable burden for most organizations.
A false distinction between large groups and SMEs
Officially, small and micro businesses will be given an extra twelve months to comply with EUDR obligations. But in reality, this provision is useless. Smaller printing plants are very often subcontractors to larger groups, which will have to comply by the end of 2025. This delay in the timetable cannot be implemented without disrupting commercial relations, de facto pushing all players to adopt the new regulations at the same time.
Intergraf is therefore calling for an end to the individual transmission of DDS identifiers, in favor of aggregated traceability. This would be based on conventional supplier and customer registration, with name, address and EORI number for international trade. According to the trade association, such a method would make it possible to achieve the environmental objective without blocking economic circuits.
Intergraf calls for regulatory pause to assess impacts
Finally, Intergraf is calling for a temporary suspension of the regulatory timetable, to allow a full assessment of the text's operational impact. The organization hopes that this period will serve to identify simplified, technically viable mechanisms, without calling into question the European Union's initial environmental ambitions.
