18/08/2026 (Euractiv), Manaus - Brazil is pushing Brussels to rethink its planned crackdown on soy-based biofuels, arguing that EU rules overstate the crop’s link to land-use change.

In a rare move, the European Parliament last month voted in favour of blocking a European Commission plan that would label soybean oil as posing a high risk of driving indirect land-use change (ILUC) – a classification that would effectively phase it out from the EU’s renewable energy targets by 2030.

Brazil and the US are major suppliers of soybeans to the EU, while Ukraine dominates EU soybean-oil imports. The measure would have also applied to EU-grown soy.

João Paulo Capobianco, Brazil’s environment minister, told Euractiv that Brazil disputes the EU’s assessment that soy-based biofuels are linked to high levels of indirect land-use change, arguing that the methodology does not accurately reflect conditions in his country.

Under current EU rules, a feedstock can be considered high ILUC-risk if more than 10% of the expansion in its production since 2008 has taken place on land with high carbon stocks, and if its annual production area has expanded by more than 1%. However, the new delegated act concerning soy uses 2014 as the reference year.

“The data we have for Brazil show that this risk is well below 10%, which would be acceptable for the EU,” Capobianco said.

Disputed methodology

MEPs had also opposed the legislation over concerns about the methodology, arguing that the Commission should not have used 2014 as the baseline year for assessing the expansion of soy cultivation onto high-carbon land. They argued that 2008 – the reference year for palm oil – would be more appropriate.

The Commission said the changes to the methodology were necessary to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling in cases brought by Indonesia and Malaysia challenging the EU’s ILUC rules for palm oil.

Capobianco said Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research produces “highly reliable and accurate data” on land-use change and deforestation that should feed into the EU’s revised methodology.

He added that Brasília is in contact with the EU to “reach an understanding” regarding any new proposal on soy-based biofuels.

Argentina, which also strongly opposed the EU delegated act and backed Parliament’s decision to reject it, held meetings with the Commission on 16 July to press for changes. During those talks, diplomats and exporters tabled “specific proposals” on the treatment of soy-based biofuels.

The head of Argentina’s chamber for oil and cereal exporters said Parliament’s rejection created an opportunity to make changes that take into account the “real soy surface of Argentina and Mercosur”.

Argentina had historically been an important supplier of soybean oil to the EU, accounting for 22% of imports in 2021. However, exports fell sharply to 5% of imports in 2025.

https://www.euractiv.com/news/brazil-presses-eu-to-revise-soy-biofuel-rules-after-parliament-veto/