The Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) were briefed late on the afternoon of Friday 18 November on the progress made so far on the proposed Ecodesign for Sustainable Products regulation, on the basis of a progress report that will be submitted to the EU Competitiveness Council on 1 December to guide future work.
It should be remembered that this proposal for a regulation dating from 30 March will establish a framework for setting ecodesign and information requirements for all products, except food and medicines.
According to this report by the Czech Presidency of the Council, there is broad support among Member States for the general objectives of the Regulation, as demonstrated by the two political debates in the Competitiveness Council at the end of September (see EUROPE 13032/3) and the Environment Council at the end of October (see EUROPE 13050/5).
Among the sensitive points identified by the Presidency are:
- Legal basis: some Member States would like to add the ‘Environment’ as a legal basis (Art. 192 TFEU) to that of the internal market (Art. 114 TFEU), considering that the proposal goes beyond harmonisation alone.
- Delegated acts and subsequent regulations: many Member States are critical of the need for extensive use of delegated acts and would also like to be more involved in the development of secondary regulations to be adopted from 2024.
Some would like the empowerment to adopt subsequent legal acts to be specified in more detail in the proposal. Several delegations had doubts about the use of self-regulatory measures as an alternative to subsequent legal acts.
- Consistency with other EU legislation: countries agree on the importance of this consistency, notably with the REACH regulation and other legislation on chemical products or between the ‘digital product passport’ of this proposal and the regulation on batteries and their waste currently being negotiated. However, they have differing views on whether or not the text should be aligned with the Digital Services Act (DSA) as far as online marketplaces are concerned. Some would even like to delete the provision for these online marketplaces in the Ecodesign proposal.
- Provisions on the destruction of unsold goods: the possibility of prohibiting economic operators from destroying unsold goods comes up against different levels of ambition. Some Member States would like to remove the exemption for SMEs.
- ‘Digital product passport’, While it is supported as a potentially beneficial tool to facilitate the free movement of sustainable products, to encourage sustainable consumer choices and to facilitate market surveillance, some delegations have concerns about the confidentiality of the information stored in this digital passport.
The Competitiveness Council will be invited to take note of this report on 1 December.
See the Czech Presidency summary report: https://aeur.eu/f/456 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)