European Commission launches the public consultation on the revision of the Cosmetics Regulation. The Cosmetics Regulation is the main legislative framework for cosmetic products placed on the EU market. A targeted revision of the Cosmetics Regulation will be carried out as part of the implementation of the EU chemicals strategy for sustainability.
The Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) adopted on 14 October 2020 outlines the Commission’s strategy for the sustainable and safe use of chemicals. The objectives of the Strategy are to better protect citizens and the environment against hazardous chemicals and encourage innovation for the development of safe and sustainable alternatives. The Cosmetic Products Regulation will be subject to a targeted revision, alongside other chemicals legislation including the REACH Regulation and CLP Regulation. The purpose of this impact assessment is to review some of the provisions of the Cosmetic Products Regulation in light of the objectives of the CSS.
In order to achieve the objectives of the CSS, the impact assessment will analyse the following policy options in addition to the baseline scenario of no policy change:
- Extending the generic approach to risk management to ensure that cosmetics do not contain, firstly, chemicals that cause cancers, gene mutations, affect the reproductive or the endocrine system, or are persistent and bioaccumulative; secondly, chemicals affecting the immune, neurological or respiratory systems and chemicals toxic to a specific organ.
- To improve effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of safety assessments across EU legislation as well as to ensure the best use of expertise and resources in the Agencies, in line with the “One Substance, One Assessment” approach, tasks of the SCCS on cosmetic ingredients could be reattributed to ECHA.
- Reviewing the definition of nanomaterial to ensure coherent terminology across chemicals legislation.
- Changing the way in which specific product label information is provided.
The public consultation is open for contributions from all stakeholders (experts and non-experts) until 21 June 2022.
