Introducing a trajectory to gradually decrease the contribution of high indirect land-use change-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels to renewable energy targets
The European Parliament adopted by 388 votes to 248, with 24 abstentions, a resolution objecting to the Commission delegated regulation of 10 April 2026 amending Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/807 to introduce a trajectory to gradually decrease the contribution of high indirect land-use change-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels to renewable energy targets.
General considerations
As a reminder, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/807 established the methodology for determining high indirect land-use change (ILUC) feedstocks, explicitly requiring, that the assessment be based on data ‘since 2008’, and setting a threshold of 10 % expansion into high-carbon stock land above which a feedstock is classified as high ILUC-risk.
The Commission's 2019 report found soybean’s share of expansion into high-carbon stock land to be 8 %, which is below the qualifying threshold, meaning soybean was not classified as high ILUC-risk.
Following a WTO ruling in 2025, the Commission's delegated act adds soy to the list of products with a high risk of inducing indirect land-use changes, alongside palm oil, based on updated scientific data. This means that soy-based biodiesel would no longer count towards the EU's renewable energy targets by 2030. However, Parliament believes that this decision is based on an unjustified change to the reference period (2014 instead of 2008), which was not required by the WTO.
Members also criticised the methodology used, which does not take into account double-cropping practices, leading, according to them, to an overstatement of soybean production area expansion.
According to Parliament, the risk of deforestation linked to soy is mainly concentrated in South America. Members pointed out that the Commission has provided no evidence demonstrating that soy cultivation within the EU causes indirect land use change, making a globally undifferentiated high ILUC-risk classification
Parliament recalled the European Commission’s Vision for Agriculture and Food which stressed the need to create a more self-sufficient Union protein system (the EU produces only approximately 6 % of the soybean it consumes, making it heavily import-dependent). The EU Protein Plan’s objectives include expanding domestic soybean cultivation in order to reduce that dependence. The classification of soybean as high ILUC-risk removes that market incentive and directly contradicts the objectives of the EU Protein Plan and the Union’s strategic autonomy goals.
Recommendations
In light of these considerations, Parliament objected to the Commission's delegated regulation and invited the Commission to submit without delay a revised delegated act that takes into account the following recommendations:
- review the classification of soybeans based on 'since 2008' data, in accordance with the 2019 delegated regulation. If, on the basis of data since 2008, soybean’s share of expansion into high-carbon stock land falls below the 10% threshold established under the existing framework, soybean should not be classified as high ILUC-risk in the revised act;
- improve the methodology by taking into account double cropping practices, in order to better reflect the real dynamics of land-use change;
- recognise soybeans produced in the European Union or in countries applying equivalent standards regarding land-use and deforestation monitoring, provision should be made for its recognition as low ILUC-risk.
Parliament affirmed that it does not object to the phase-down of palm oil-based biofuels or to the correction of deficiencies in the low ILUC-risk certification procedure, which constitute appropriate and necessary responses to the WTO Panel ruling and should be retained in any revised delegated act.