Government agreed to the European Union Affairs Committee’s amendments relating to the repair of goods initiative

“Repairing of things is very important for the environment, because the longer a thing is used, the smaller its environmental impact is,” Chair of the European Union Affairs Committee Liisa Pakosta said. She explained that the Committee had discussed the initiative regarding the repair of goods at two sittings in summer and decided to significantly amend Estonia’s positions on this issue.

“Just making an additional webpage funded by the state or sending a washing machine from Võru to France to be repaired are not reasonable solutions. The Riigikogu Committee in every way supports the idea that goods must be repaired more, but the obligations should be appropriate and reasonably enforceable. We found in our Committee that instead of imposing the obligation to repair on the producers, it would be of greater help if the producers had the obligation to ensure access to all spare parts and repair instructions to local repairers and end users in Estonia. If all spare parts can be ordered online and the drawings necessary for making repairs are accessible, it will also contribute to reducing transport footprint,” Pakosta said about the changes the Riigikogu had introduced into Estonia’s positions.

If the EU wanted to create a webpage to help find local repair services, it should be done centrally in the Committee’s opinion. Pakosta added that the information necessary for repairing should be communicated to the user already before ordering the work from the repairer, and it was also the usual practice because it was often asked what the repairs would cost and how long it would take. The Riigikogu does not support the creation of a long repair information form for comparing the repair offers that was proposed in the European Commission initiative.

The European Union Affairs Committee discussed the positions submitted by the Government at its sittings on 7 and 21 July and decided to amend them significantly in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice. The amended positions were presented to the Government, who supported the positions proposed by the Committee at its yesterday’s sitting. Thus, Estonia’s positions regarding the initiative are approved and the representatives of Estonia can proceed from them at the negotiations held in Europe.

For more information, please contact: Liisa Pakosta, phone +372 502 6191

Riigikogu Press Service
Merilin Kruuse
Phone: +372 631 6592, +372 510 6179
E-mail: merilin.kruuse@riigikogu.ee
Questions: press@riigikogu.ee

Link uudisele: Government agreed to the European Union Affairs Committee’s amendments relating to the repair of goods initiative

Source: Parliament of Estonia