How do I submit a due diligence declaration to the EU information system?

Submission occurs via the EU register, not by post or email

A due diligence declaration is submitted via the EU information system for the deforestation regulation: the central register established by the European Commission for this purpose. This is not a form you send to an authority, but a digital environment in which you first register, after which you create and submit a declaration per product stream or shipment. Upon submission, the system generates a reference number, and that number is what you subsequently provide to whoever needs it: a customs authority upon import, or a buyer further down the chain who resells your product.

Who actually submits depends on the role in the chain and the arrangements made. A market operator can submit themselves, or have it done by an authorised representative with access to the system on behalf of that undertaking. Before a declaration is submitted, the underlying information must be complete: data on the supplier, the country of origin, and where applicable the plots where the product originates from. The submission itself is thus the final step in a process, not the first — the development of the file precedes it.

Where this register obligation is set out in the regulation

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 tasks the European Commission with establishing an information system in which market operators and traders submit their due diligence declarations and in which competent authorities can access and monitor them. The EU information system for the deforestation regulation is the practical implementation of that task: the register in which the declaration is actually created, submitted and assigned a reference number. For the precise functioning of the system, including who must have access and how declarations are processed, the full text of the regulation on EUR-Lex remains the binding source.