Clear consensus on the need to end planned obsolescence

The European Parliament today adopted an own-initiative report from Pascal Durand aimed at extending the life of products to the benefit of consumers and businesses, their employees and the environment.

Greens/EFA rapporteur Pascal Durand comments:

"By adopting this report with a large majority, the European Parliament has set out for the first time a clear EU position on the issue of the lifetime of products. We can no longer ignore the environmental, social and economic consequences of such a throwaway society. Whether it is resource depletion, transport emissions, waste, or the impact on household budgets, the current situation is clearly not sustainable.

"It is necessary to address the issue of sustainability of products as a whole, looking at all stages of their life cycle. On the design side, we need minimum strength requirements and support for industry seeking to improve the sustainability of their products. On reuse and repair, we need better information on the availability of spare parts and active support for more use-oriented and circular economic models, drawing on European models that work, such as the Swedish tax incentive on repairs. Finally, we must tackle the issue of software obsolescence, which determines the lifetime of many consumer goods, to restore consumer confidence and allow prolonged use of objects.

"We now call on the European Commission to take on board the calls of the parliament and support new, more sustainable economic models."