EU member states and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement to simplify EU rules on how chemical products are classified, packaged and labelled, alongside related requirements for cosmetics and fertilising products.
The deal covers the remaining elements of the EU’s “Omnibus VI” package on chemical products, which changes three regulations: the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) regulation, the 2009 cosmetics regulation and the 2019 fertilising products regulation, the Council of the EU informed on Wednesday.
The date when the revised CLP rules start applying would be pushed back to 1 January 2030, extending an earlier delay to 1 January 2028.
The Council said the later date is intended to align the start date across all three sets of rules.
Marilena Raouna, Cyprus deputy minister for European affairs, said the agreement reduces administrative burdens while maintaining consumer and environmental protection.
Changes to labels, cosmetics deadlines and fertiliser components
On chemical labels, the agreement would set general readability criteria for business-to-business products, while keeping stronger safeguards for products sold to the public, such as minimum font sizes, the Council said.
It would also allow some small inner packaging — with printer ink cartridges cited as an example — to use digital-only labels, as long as extensive information is provided in print on the outer packaging.
The deal would give companies “a few additional months” to update labels when substances in a product are found to be more hazardous than previously thought, in response to complaints that existing timelines are too short.
For cosmetics, the agreement would change transitional periods for phasing out CMR substances — chemicals that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction — using deadlines that vary with the level of risk.
It also asks the European Commission to publish guidance on how alternative substances should be defined and used.
Cosmetic products containing nanomaterials would still require extensive notification before they are placed on the market.
For fertilising products, the agreement includes changes to requirements for authorising component materials that can be used in fertilisers to receive a CE marking.
The Commission would be tasked with modernising registration requirements for fertiliser components including micro-organisms, animal by-products, polymers and other substances that can be difficult to register under current categories.
The agreement must now be endorsed by both the Council and the European Parliament before legal and linguistic checks, with formal adoption expected in 2026.
