On Thursday 1 December, Ministers for Industry and Trade of Member States, who met in the ‘Competitiveness’ Council, welcomed the Czech Presidency’s progress report on the 30 March proposal for an Ecodesign Regulation for sustainable products, intended to establish a framework for setting ecodesign and information requirements for all products except food and medicines.
They considered that the progress report presented to them was a “perfect reflection” of their support for the general objectives of the regulation and their continuing concerns, which are predominantly about the legal basis of the future regulation, delegated acts, consistency with other legislation, the destruction of unsold goods, the risk that the confidentiality of the data in the digital product passport will not be guaranteed, and the risk of an additional administrative burden for businesses and market surveillance authorities (see EUROPE 13066/6).
The Czech Minister of Industry and Trade, Jozef Síkela, told the Ministers that the Czech Presidency will try to present a compromise text next week.
The European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, welcomed “the significant progress and the will to maintain a sustained work to provide a first draft of the text before the end of the year”, which bodes well for the beginning of the Swedish Presidency. He hopes that the interinstitutional negotiations can be concluded quickly in 2023 with regard to this text that is “a cornerstone of industrial policy and the circular economy”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)