MEPS WELCOME EU INSTITUTIONS PULLING IN THE SAME DIRECTION AFTER YEARS OF STALLING ON HARMONISATION

This month saw more legislative progress towards a mandated common charger for portable electronic devices in the EU’s single market.

In their meeting during Parliament’s second committee week in February, the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) began work on a revised Radio Equipment Directive by commenting on Alex Agius Saliba’s (MT, S&D) report.

The requirement that industry standardise charging ports across certain electronic devices - namely smartphones, tablets, cameras, headphones, portable speakers and handheld video game consoles - is a cause Parliament first started advocating for ten years ago.

A Commission proposal from October 2021 suggests making USB-C the standard port for such devices. In the committee meeting, IMCO members welcomed the proposal in a remarkable display of harmony across the entire political spectrum.

Rapporteur Agius Saliba highlighted the draft legislation’s aim to strengthen requirements for companies to provide information for consumers.

Without it, he argued, “we cannot have a universal charger because, ultimately, we have to influence the consumer’s choice to make a sustainable decision when they are buying their devices”.

Kosma Złotowski (PL, ECR) found that the draft report “complements the Commission’s proposals very well” but cautioned against putting forward the timetable for implementation, as the report does.

“This is going to be di—cult for our companies to do, they will need the time”, he argued.

IMCO Chair Anna Cavazzini (DE, Greens/EFA), who is also her group’s shadow, particularly appreciated the fact that the Commission included a provision for “unbundling”, that is, the separation of device and charger when bringing such products to market.

Christian Doleschal (DE, EPP) called the draft report “convincing”, welcoming its widening of the scope of devices covered in the original proposal and the inclusion of wireless chargers in the provisions.

Róża Thun und Hohenstein (PL, Renew) called the proposal “something that millions of Europeans have been expecting” and which addresses “problems that millions of Europeans encounter in their everyday life”.

The most vigorous opposition to the plans is likely to come from Apple, the company most impacted by a universal charger obligation, as, unlike its competitors, it insists on using proprietary chargers for the iPhone.

“We remain concerned that strict regulation mandating just one type of connector stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, which in turn will harm consumers in Europe and around the world”, the Silicon Valley tech giant commented in a statement in September.

The final vote in the IMCO committee is currently scheduled for late April, and if the plenary does not object, a mandate for interinstitutional negotiations could be issued at its next session in early May.