On Monday 24 October in Luxembourg, the Environment Ministers of the EU Member States confirmed their support for the environmental objectives of the proposed Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, stressing the importance of access for all - primarily consumers, but also industry - to product information by means of a ‘digital product passport’.
This proposal for a Regulation of 30 March will establish a framework for setting ecodesign and information requirements for almost all products so that sustainable products become the norm (see EUROPE 12922/1). It had already been briefly presented to them by the Commission at the Environment Council on 28 June.
Monday’s policy debate on sustainability was intended to follow up on the in-depth policy debate held at the end of September by the Industry and Trade Ministers, who are now the lead Ministers for this dossier formally assigned to the EU Competitiveness Council (see EUROPE 13032/3).
“Ministers supported the main objectives of this proposal and highlighted the potential of the digital product passport. This passport can be taken into consideration by consumers when making their consumption choices”, summarised the Czech Minister for the Environment, Anna Hubáčková, at the end of the session she chaired.
Satisfied with the level of ambition of the proposal to facilitate the EU’s ecological transition, the Environment Ministers all welcomed the importance of this future Regulation to make the European economy more circular and climate neutral, to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the ‘European Green Deal’, but also to strengthen the internal market for sustainable products.
Belgium, for example, stressed that requirements for the recycled content of products will help develop a market for secondary raw materials.
Several delegations, including the Netherlands and Germany, insisted that the destruction of end-of-life consumer goods should be prohibited - and that this should be in the Regulation itself, not in a delegated act, Germany said.
Supporting the digital product passport, the Ministers called for robust, simple, easily understandable information for consumers, stressing the importance of information on sustainability, reparability, lower content of harmful chemicals, energy and resource efficiency to promote ‘informed choices’.
“80% of environmental impacts are concentrated in the product design phase. We need to help citizens make sustainable choices”, said the Spanish delegation.
European Commissioner for Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius stressed the importance of this legislation for the EU’s climate and environmental objectives. He recalled that the future Regulation “could cover as much as 65% of total greenhouse gas emissions from product consumption in the EU and 70% of our resource depletion, making it a cornerstone not only of our efforts to achieve the circular economy, but also of our mitigation efforts”.
Hence the importance of the text being adopted “as quickly as possible in co-decision and that the EU Council and the European Parliament maintaining the high level of ambition”, he insisted.
This policy debate will guide the continued technical work, which is still in its initial phase in the EU Council’s Competitiveness Working Group. It is therefore unlikely that a EU Council general approach, setting out its position, can be adopted before the end of December, as the dossier is “too green” for that, according to a diplomatic source. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)