Meeting in plenary session, MEPs approved by a narrow majority (378 votes in favour, 306 against, 17 abstentions) on Tuesday 24 November a Greens/EFA amendment to the draft own-initiative report by David Cormand (Greens/EFA, France) calling on the European Commission to introduce a labelling scheme to provide consumers with clear and easy-to-understand information on a product’s estimated lifespan and reparability at the time of purchase.
This was a thorny issue in Mr Cormand’s draft report on a more sustainable single market (see EUROPE 12590/7), with some political groups (EPP and part of Renew Europe) preferring voluntary labelling (see EUROPE 12606/10).
“Consumers are already overwhelmed by the information. If we must work on better sustainable labelling, let’s work on making the existing Eco-design Directive better”, argued Dita Charanzová (Renew Europe, the Czech Republic) in a debate among MEPs on Monday.
MEPs also approved a second Greens/EFA amendment calling on the Commission to combat “premature” obsolescence of products (rather than “planned” obsolescence) by studying the possibility of adding practices that intentionally shorten their lifespan to the black list of the EU directive (2005/29) on unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices.
Adopted by only two votes (344 in favour, 342 against and 15 abstentions), the amendment was criticised in particular by Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany), who said that “there is no way of knowing exactly how long a product is going to last”, as “this also depends very much on usage”.
Describing the adoption of these two amendments as an “unprecedented victory for European consumers and for the planet”, Mr Cormand said that Parliament “has affirmed an unprecedented ambition in its desire to change rules that today are based on waste, the unlimited exploitation of resources and the over-consumption of low-quality products”.
The whole of Mr Cormand’s amended report is expected to be adopted without difficulty on Wednesday 25 November, according to one source. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)