The European Commission is preparing to roll back recently adopted labelling requirements under the revised CLP regulation, citing a mismatch between earlier cost estimates and feedback from industry, according to draft documents seen by Chemical Watch News & Insight.
Its eagerly awaited proposal is part of the chemicals omnibus, which will be released alongside an action plan for industry. This legislative measure also aims to simplify the EU’s cosmetic products and fertilising products regulations.
The Commission's 100-page draft staff working document, accompanied by a 52-page explanatory memorandum, is subject to change before its release on 8 July – one week later than originally expected.
The release date change was apparent on 24 June when the EU executive published the latest version of its College of Commissioners meetings, which showed that publication of the chemicals package had moved from 2 July.
The CLP revision, adopted in 2024, introduced stricter formatting requirements, such as minimum font sizes and label structure, for hazardous chemicals across consumer products. At the time, the Commission said in its impact study that any added costs, such as switching to fold-out labels, would be offset by recurring savings from simplified and harmonised labelling.
However, industry has consistently opposed the new rules, saying the changes require a complete redesign of most labels and come with broader logistical and financial implications.
In addition to these costs, in its new assessment, the EU executive accepted industry arguments that the new rules would be incompatible with packaging-reduction targets and would lead to more waste and CO₂ emissions.
As a result, the Commission is proposing to scrap the 2024 labelling changes and revert to the previous framework, which only required labels to be legible, without detailed specifications.
This move would eliminate most of the projected costs for affected sectors, generating a wide range of savings of between €31m and €2.4bn across the chemicals sector, according to its own calculations.
Omnibus packages
The omnibus package follows so-called ‘reality check’ workshops with stakeholders, hosted by the Commission’s industry directorate (DG GROW).
During and after the workshop, NGOs warned that simplification measures would be a "retrograde" step for the EU. MEPs have also expressed concern over the Commission’s intention to deregulate parts of the chemicals framework.
This will be the sixth omnibus package under the current Ursula von der Leyen Commission, with earlier editions exempting SMEs from fluorinated gas (F-gas) reporting obligations and changes to the EU’s Taxonomy Regulation that would see around 10,000 chemicals removed from its reporting scope.
The latest omnibus package for the defence sector included measures to make it easier for EU countries to exempt the use of hazardous chemicals when used for national security.
The chemicals sector omnibus, first announced by Commission President von der Leyen at the beginning of this year, comes in response to growing pressure from the EU chemicals sector, which has warned of a sharp downturn driven by weak demand, declining competitiveness and increasingly complex and costly regulation.
The latest schedule of meetings for the College of Commissioners refers to the chemicals package as "part 1", suggesting that additional chemicals sector omnibus initiatives may follow.