Cosmetic make-up

More than 3,500 pages of legal rules could be scrapped if the European Commission gets agreement for its proposal for a regulation on cosmetics which was published on Tuesday (5 February).

The Commission proposes replacing the 1976 cosmetics directive, which the cosmetics industry complains is too complex, with a single regulation. In recent years, the directive has been amended three to five times a year and member states have transposed it differently into their national law.

Günter Verheugen, enterprise and industry commissioner, said that the law on cosmetics was an example of how a piece of EU legislation could be ripe for simplification. The new law puts more duties on manufacturers to ensure their products are safe, requiring them to report serious undesirable side-effects.

Sergi Corbalan, director of legal affairs at the European Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association (Colipa), welcomed the proposed EU-wide system for notification of products, saying this would simplify life for companies.

More than 3,500 pages of legal rules could be scrapped if the European Commission gets agreement for its proposal for a regulation on cosmetics which was published on Tuesday (5 February).