Long-awaited after several postponements, the proposal for a regulation on sustainable products, which the European Commission will present on Wednesday 30 March, is the centrepiece of this legislature’s first legislative package on the circular economy, the second being expected on 20 July.
This ‘Regulation on Eco-design for Sustainable Products, amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 and repealing Directive 2009/125/EC’ will provide an EU policy framework for the sustainability of virtually all products, beyond just the energy-related products currently covered by the Eco-design Directive (2009/125/EC), so that sustainable products gradually become the norm.
The aim is to preserve the environment - 80% of the negative environmental impact of products is determined in the design phase -, to stop the inefficient use of resources, to reduce the extraction of raw materials and Europe’s dependence on imported raw materials.
This framework, applicable to all products placed on the EU market, will allow the setting of eco-design requirements, the creation of a European digital passport for products, ensuring transparency on their traceability and on the chemical substances of concern they contain, as EUROPE has previously reported (see EUROPE 12903/15). It will pave the way for a ban on the destruction of unsold consumer products.
This future legislation will be complemented by an initiative to ‘Empower consumers’ so that they can play their part in the environmental transition by making use, in their purchasing decisions, of reliable information provided through labelling, in particular on the lifespan of products, their reparability, and their capacity to be recycled. Such an approach will bring benefits for the environment and savings for citizens, the European Commission believes.
Textiles. The Sustainable Textiles Strategy, announced in the EU Industrial Strategy, will set out the European Commission’s vision for 2030 in this area. It will involve businesses in adopting new business models and consumers in changing their behaviour. Each European consumes 11 kg of textiles per year.
As an economic sector, textiles creates the 4th most environmental pressure in terms of raw material and water use, after food, housing and transport.
The proposed revision of Directive 89/106/EEC on construction products will complete the scheme.
In the European Parliament, expectations are high. “The war in Ukraine has created a major concern for everyone. We need to show that the EU can meet the energy and raw materials challenge through the circular economy”, stressed Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Chair Anna Cavazzini (Greens/EFA, Germany) at a press briefing on Tuesday. She recalled that the European Parliament had called for this legislative package 2 years ago.
It will vote next week on a draft resolution on the right to reparability of products, added Mrs Cavazzini (see EUROPE 12912/17).
Her French colleague David Corman, who authored the own-initiative report on a sustainable single market in 2020 (see EUROPE 12609/2), stressed the importance the Greens/EFA group attaches to: - an outright ban on the destruction of unsold goods; - the end of premature product obsolescence (rather than programmed obsolescence) “which would reverse the burden of proof by requiring the producer to prove that he has manufactured his products in accordance with the rules of the art”; - and the mandatory display of reparability and durability indices for products.
Mr Corman also called for the introduction of product usage meters to facilitate resale and for the regulation of advertising, which he said was a major issue, “as it encourages people to buy what they don’t need”.
For Delara Burkhardt (S&D, Germany), “the planned introduction of the digital product passport is an opportunity for all product sectors”.
See the draft proposal for a regulation on sustainable products: https://aeur.eu/f/10q (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)