Sustainability Services | Regulatory Update | January 2024

The aim is to develop an EU-wide forest observation framework to provide to detailed, accurate, regular, and timely information on the condition and management of EU forests, and on the many products and ecosystem services that forests provide.

This adopted act is open for feedback until 7 February 2024. All feedback received will be summarised by the European Commission and presented to the European Parliament and Council with the aim of feeding into the legislative debate.

The aim is to make products sold in the EU subject to the Ecodesign  requirement (performance and information-related) to ensure greater sustainability.

Commission adoption is planned for first quarter 2024.

The Council has adopted its position supports the main objectives of the Net-Zero Industry Act, but introduces several improvements, such as enlarging the scope of application, and clarifying the rules for permit-granting procedures, access to market and public procurement and promoting skills, and research and innovation.

The Council presidency and the European Parliament’s negotiators have reached a provisional agreement on the proposal on harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (AI). The AI act has the main idea is to regulate AI based on the latter’s capacity to cause harm to society following a ‘risk-based’ approach: the higher the risk, the stricter the rules.

This decree defines the obligations of eco-organisations to contribute to or provide for the collection, recycling and reuse of waste from household packaging, printed paper and paper for graphic use. It also defines the specifications for individual systems put in place, where applicable, by producers to individually fulfill their extended responsibility obligations.

The due diligence directive will set obligations for large companies regarding actual and potential adverse impacts on human rights and the environment, with respect to their own operations, those of their subsidiaries, and those carried out by their business partners.

The Council has reached an agreement on a proposal for a regulation on packaging and packaging waste. The aim is to minimise packaging waste generated in the EU.

The proposal will serve as a mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament on the final shape of the legislation.

Main changes agreed by the Council are:

• Reducing and preventing the generation of packaging waste
• Sustainability requirements and recyclable packaging
• Packaging waste reduction targets
• Reusable packaging and re-use targets
• Deposit return schemes (DRS)
• Restrictions on certain packaging formats
• Labelling of packaging (information about the material composition of packaging and its proper disposal when it becomes waste)
• Strengthening the obligations of logistical service providers to ensure producers using such services do not avoid their extended producer responsibility (EPR) obligations.
• Maintaining most of the obligations for operators, manufacturers, importers and distributors as set out by the Commission’s proposal.
• ·Extending the date of application of the regulation to 18 months after its entry into force.

The proposal will serve as the Council’s mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament on the final shape of the legislation. The outcome of the negotiations will have to be formally adopted by the Council and the Parliament.

For more information, consult the European Council website here.

The Council and the Parliament have reached a provisional political agreement on the proposed regulation establishing a framework for setting ecodesign requirements for sustainable products.

The ecodesign regulation would be applicable to almost all categories of products (i.e. dishwashers, televisions, windows, car chargers, etc). It establishes a harmonised framework for setting of requirements for specific product groups to make them not only energy and resource-efficient (as it was the case in the existing 2009 directive) but also more durable, reliable, reusable, upgradable, reparable, recyclable and easier to maintain. The Commission will be able to propose new requirements by delegated acts when new kinds of products or technologies call for it.

The Council and the European Parliament have reached a provisional deal on the revision of the two legislative proposals of the designs package: the directive for the legal protection of designs and the regulation on Community designs. The new texts update the 20-year-old design legislation, aiming to facilitate the protection of industrial designs and adapt EU law in this area to the challenges of a digital and 3D-printing world.

These standards describe methods and qualitative-quantitative analytical evaluation of microplastics.

The standards are:

• ISO 4484-1:2023 Microplastics from textile sources. Part 1: Determination of material loss from fabrics during washing.
• ISO 4484-2:2023 Microplastics from textile sources. Part 2: Qualitative and quantitative analysis of microplastics.
• ISO 4484-3:2023 Microplastics from textile sources. Part 3: Measurement of collected material mass released from textile end products by domestic washing method.

This decree modifies the specifications of the sectors with extended responsibility of the producer of electrical and electronic equipment, sporting and leisure articles and DIY and garden articles concerning the funds dedicated to financing repair and reuse and reuse.

This decree supplements the decree establishing specifications for eco-organisations and individual systems of the extended responsibility sector of the producer of DIY and garden items to take into account the provisions of article L. 541-10-4 and R. 541-107 et seq. of the Environmental Code. It thus introduces provisions relating to coordination in the event of approval of several eco-organisations for the same family of DIY and garden items and provides in particular for the creation of an Annex III containing specifications for approval of coordinating bodies.

This decree defines the specifications of eco-organisations which must contribute to or provide for the collection, recycling, and reuse of waste from household packaging, printed paper and paper for graphic use. It also defines the specifications for individual systems put in place, where applicable, by producers to individually fulfill their extended responsibility obligations.