The Microbial Control Executive Council has the opportunity to contribute to the public consultation under the Sustainable Products Initiative which will see the revision of the scope of the Ecodesign directive in a way that addresses the presence of hazardous chemicals in certain product categories. The consultation was published in the form of a questionnaire on 17 March and the deadline for comments is set for 9 June.

Back in November 2020, MCEC contributed to the 4-weeks public consultation initiating the launch of the Commission’s work in preparing a sustainable products policy framework. MCEC’s position was very clear: if the industry supports the authorities in their efforts of ensuring more sustainable products on the markets, the Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR) already provide all the necessary safety requirements for human health and the preservation of the environment. Therefore, no new legislation is considered needed to regulate the use of microbial control technologies in products.

According to the timeline published by the Commission in 2020, the draft law revising the Ecodesign directive will be proposed by the end of 2021. From the same Commission, “priority will be given to addressing product groups identified in the context of the value chains featuring in the Circular Economy Action Plan, such as electronics, ICT and textiles but also furniture and high impact intermediary products such as steel, cement and chemicals”. The Initiative is expected to be complemented by other sectoral legislation (e.g. on textiles).

MCEC’s objective is to ensure that policy coherence across the chemicals legislative framework is respected. Similar to the input provided last year, MCEC will highlight the key role of biocides in the sustainable products policy framework (e.g. for product preservation and support to the circular economy by waste reduction).

MCEC will carefully assess the published questionnaire and will identify positions to better represent the interest of microbial control.