European Parliament committees have endorsed the provisional agreement by EU co-legislators on the Chemicals Omnibus, bringing the file one step closer to adoption.
The vote signals that the compromise text is now likely to survive the remaining approval steps, despite concerns from Denmark over longer carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic (CMR) transition periods for cosmetics.
On 14 July, Parliament's environment (ENVI) and internal market and consumer protection (IMCO) committees backed the agreement with 110 votes in favour, ten against and five abstentions at their final sitting before the summer break.
Parliament and the Council of Ministers reached a provisional agreement after months of negotiations.
The file differs significantly from the European Commission's original proposal for the Chemicals Omnibus, which envisaged a radical overhaul of the regulation of CMR substances under the Cosmetic Products Regulation (CPR).
Last month, Denmark’s environment ministry opposed the provisional agreement, but acknowledged that its position was unlikely to affect the file's final adoption.
Denmark's opposition centred on longer transition periods for phasing out CMR substances in cosmetics. Under the agreement, it could take between 12 months and five years and three months from the classification of a substance as a CMR to the removal of cosmetic products containing it from the market.
These timelines are shorter than those proposed by the European Commission last year, but still longer than under the current legislation, where the process typically takes around six to 12 months.
The European Parliament must still give its final approval in a plenary vote scheduled for October.
The Council of Ministers must also formally approve the measure, either at the ministerial level or through a written procedure, before it can enter into force.