Deforestation and forest degradation are major environmental and socio-economic challenges that threaten biodiversity, climate stability, and local communities' livelihoods. The global demand for commodities which are frequently linked to deforestation and forest degradation, is one of the main drivers of these issues. Moreover, the focus of other regulatory instruments on illegal activities proved insufficient because legal agriculture and land-use practices contribute significantly to deforestation. In an attempt to respond to increasing pressure from EU stakeholders and to curb any kind of consumption-driven deforestation, the European Commission, Council and Parliament have agreed on the text of a new Regulation
(COM/2021/706 final) that aims to ensure that only deforestation-free and legally produced commodities are allowed on or exported from the EU market. The initiative falls under the umbrella of the EU Green Deal, as well as the Biodiversity and the Farm to Fork Strategies. The Regulation’s product scope focuses on the commodities with the highest EU embodied deforestation (beef, palm oil, soy, wood, cocoa, and coffee) and their derived products, whose supply chains are very often global and complex. One key element of the Regulation is the mandatory due diligence system, which requires operators and traders placing specific products on the EU market to assure traceability to plot level and to demonstrate that they have taken the necessary steps to identify and mitigate the risks of deforestation and forest degradation associated with the products or commodities. The purpose of this paper is to assess the interplay between the rules set by the new Deforestation Regulation and EU Public Procurement Directive 2014/24, more specifically Articles 57 on exclusion grounds and 18.2 on general principles. Indeed the Regulation foresees a “temporary exclusion from public procurement processes” as a minimum penalty for the breach of its provisions. Second, when a public contract regards the purchase of one of the covered products or a related service, the issue becomes whether any due diligence can be deemed to extend to public buyers. Essentially, this paper will discuss how public bodies, in the exercise of their purchasing function, can contribute to the deforestation-free objective.