Policy Updates

The Council and the Parliament’s ENVI Committee have adopted their positions on extending CBAM to downstream products, including several HVACR product categories.

A leaked working version of the EU data centre rating scheme shows limited changes after the April consultation. Nuclear energy is now recognised alongside renewables, while the PUE and WUE scales remain unchanged.

At the beginning of July 2026, all suppliers registered in EPREL received a message announcing the possibility of complementing model information.

The Commission presented a revised rolling list of its Restrictions Roadmap under REACH. This provides an updated overview of ongoing and planned restrictions on hazardous substances under the REACH Regulation.

The energy labelling framework has already proven effective in reducing energy use and supporting informed consumer choices. It will therefore be maintained and further strengthened, only streamlining the rules and reducing administrative burden.

Earlier in June, the Commission proposed the Cloud and AI Development Act and adopted the Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in the Energy Sector, aiming to boost data centre deployment in Europe in sustainable ways.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has officially classified trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) as toxic to reproduction (Category 1B), concluding it "may damage the unborn child" and is “suspected of damaging fertility”. It is a question how this will affect the upcoming PFAS REACH restriction.

The JRC, under the mandate of the Commission DG GROW, organised a preparatory study on the ESPR-delegated Act on Iron and Steel products. The Commission has now launched a call for evidence and public consultation, open until 12 August.

As the Internal Market Emergency and Resilience Act (IMERA) enters into application on May 29, the EU now has a structured framework to strengthen crisis preparedness, improve coordination with EU countries and businesses, and ensure targeted and proportionate action to safeguard the free movement of goods, services, and people across the single market.

At the end of May, DG GROW held a meeting on the testing activity on plastic compounds. The meeting was organised to discuss the results and the following report of a testing campaign on varying concentrations of post-consumer polymers on the behaviour of virgin polymer formulations.

The JRC hosted the second stakeholder meeting on the preparatory study for horizontal repairability requirements within the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) on April 28th.

The European Commission has convened a stakeholder meeting on the review of Ecodesign requirements and Energy Labelling of refrigerating appliances with a direct sales function (EU) 2019/2024 and (EU) 2019/2018, on 18 June 2026.