After more than three years of reflections, discussions, projects and uncertainties, the project to revise Regulation (EC) 1223/2009 has been definitively abandoned. This was confirmed by Hans Ingels, Head of the European Commission’s Bioeconomy, Chemicals and Cosmetics Unit, at the 22nd Congress on Regulatory Issues - Fragrance & Cosmetics organised by Cosmetic Valley on 20 November 2024. And he tried to answer the question: “what now?” with a few certainties and ideas for future action.
“I told you in the past about the Commission’s plan to amend the Cosmetics Regulation. This was a consequence of the Chemicals Strategy, the CSS,” recalled Hans Ingels. “In the end, this plan never came to fruition. And it is highly unlikely that it will happen in the future.”
On the agenda for this revision were changes to the definition of nanomaterials to bring it into line with the Commission’s 2022 Recommendation, changes to Article 15 to include substances that have an effect on the endocrine system, and the introduction of digital labelling to strengthen controls at external borders…
“Based on the impact assessment and the contributions we have received from the Member States, it is clear that the problems we wanted to tackle have not gone away,” commented Hans Ingels. “So what are we going to do about it?”
A fitness check to start with
In the end, it was decided to carry out a “fitness check”, an evaluation of the whole Regulation and how it works. An overall review to determine what works, what doesn’t, the advantages of the text, its disadvantages, what could be improved, what should be kept…
“This evaluation will take at least a …
