European Parliament approves streamlined cosmetics legislation

The European Parliament has approved updated cosmetics legislation, agreeing the compromise text negotiated between the European Parliament and Council representatives, on its first reading.

The single revised piece of legislation has been designed to streamline and modernise legislation which had been made up of many revisions over the years. It will take the form of a regulation, making it directly applicable in all the EU Member States. The new text maintains a clear legal scope and provides definition of roles and responsibilities. As part of the simplification of administrative procedures, the text includes for the first time a single EU-wide register for cosmetic products (the notification process) and increases the cooperation between market surveillance authorities. The new legislation will also require industry to provide information on the use of nano materials in cosmetic products and a new safety assessment procedure will be introduced for products containing them. Restrictions have also been tightened on CMRs

“The streamlining of this piece of legislation benefits industry and consumers alike and should reduce unnecessary red tape,” commented Bertil Heerink, Colipa’s director general. “It is fully in line with our industry’s continuous commitment to provide safe and innovative products, ensuring consumer confidence at the same time. This legislative process has benefited significantly from a high level of quality input and commitment from all parties.”

But as Colipa points out, as with any implementation phase, some challenges remain. “We need to ensure that the diversity of all companies in Europe will be able and enabled to remain innovative and serve the consumers best.”

The regulation comes into force 20 days after publication in the EU official journal. The majority of it will then be applicable 42 months after this time but for nano materials and CMR substances the deadline will be earlier.