Debates

Tuesday, 4 October 2022 - Strasbourg

Radio Equipment Directive: common charger for electronic devices (debate)

  Miapetra Kumpula-Natri (S&D). – Madam President, Commissioner and rapporteur, I’m very proud of you all. Societies are digitalising and we do need to take many, many concrete steps to make it fair and sustainable. A universal charger of USB-C standard is a very good step that we are taking now after ten years of lobbying and making the world to see what the MEPs wanted. This is a part of the broader action to address sustainability of the electronic products and reduce e-waste.

Now the consumers thinks ‘is it finally’; unfortunately, two more years to wait to see it in the stores and shops. That is the deadline and Parliament succeeded to add laptops, and that will take place in 2026 under the scope. Altogether, six added products here was very, very good work from the rapporteur and from the Parliament. So now it is altogether 14 categories of products that need to use this common charger now decided.

Do industry need any rules? I think the speed limitation was the most brutal one, that you didn’t get the right one if you didn’t do it. So stupid piles of chargers and wasting the resources is why we needed this one. The next steps: I get a lot of complaints that there is no common EV payment systems, so let’s think about how to make consumers life better.