Lawmakers in the European Parliament and Council have announced that they reached a provisional agreement on proposed regulations for a new “Ecodesign” framework to establish sustainability requirements for nearly all products across the EU, and to improve information to consumers about products’ environmental sustainability.
The agreement follows an initial proposal by the European Commission in March 2022 to set rules to improve the sustainability profile of a wide category of products, including making them more environmentally friendly, circular, and energy-efficient through their lifecycle, by replacing the existing 2009 Ecodesign directive, which was limited to energy-related products.
Under the new regulation, the Commission would be empowered to adopt ecodesign requirements for products to improve their environmental sustainability and would prioritize product groups including iron, steel, aluminum, textiles, furniture, tires, detergents, paints, lubricants and chemicals.
Requirements under the proposal cover a broad range of sustainability aspects including product durability, reusability, upgradability and reparability, the use of substances that inhibit circularity, energy and resource efficiency, recycled content, remanufacturing and recycling, and products’ carbon and environmental footprints.
