Progress has been made by EU Member States in their work on the proposal to amend Regulation 1272/2008/EC on the classification, labelling and packaging of chemical substances and mixtures (known as the CLP Regulation) in order to adapt it to the latest scientific knowledge, to better protect human health and the environment and to make life easier for economic operators.
The proposal was presented by the European Commission in December 2022 (see EUROPE 13087/6). It has been fully examined and a draft compromise has been drawn up by the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council, which takes into account the comments made by the various delegations. This was submitted on Wednesday 31 May to the EU Council’s Working Party on the Environment for final adjustments.
This draft compromise, dated 23 May and examined by EUROPE, supports the European Commission’s proposal to create new hazard classes for the most toxic chemical substances and mixtures of concern in order to allow for the adoption of additional measures to address and mitigate the risks of substances and mixtures under other downstream European legislation, such as the REACH regulation.
The compromise being discussed clarifies certain labelling provisions and, more specifically, provides for the updating of labels (Article 30) to be subject to individual deadlines for each actor in the supply chain, rather than setting cumulative deadlines that apply to the entire supply chain.
It also attempts to clarify requirements that relate to the shape and design of fold-out labels (Article 31). However, the Presidency expects delegations to state whether they can agree to this or whether they would prefer not to introduce such requirements, instead leaving the matter to the discretion of the authorities.
The draft compromise also specifies the timetable, stipulating that the European Commission will adopt delegated acts by 1 January 2026 at the latest to include in Annex VI of the future regulation those substances that are endocrine disrupters for human health category 1, endocrine disrupters for the environment category 1, persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic or very persistent and very bio-accumulative, as well as the relevant classification and labelling elements when, by 1 January 2025, these substances will have been included in the candidate list referred to in Article 59 (1) of the REACH regulation.
See the Presidency’s draft compromise: https://aeur.eu/f/757
See the Presidency’s annotations: https://aeur.eu/f/759 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)