Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), rapporteur, following the first discussion at the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, explains the EU plans to make life easier for consumers and reduce waste by making USB-C the common charger for smartphones and other mobile devices.

Common Chargers: statement by Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D,MT), rapporteur

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/15792292/I214672Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

Title: Common Chargers: statement by Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D,MT), rapporteur

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D, MT), Rapporteur, Today we had the first discussion on the proposal that the European Parliament and the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee has been pushing since 10 years: the proposal to have a common charger not only for smartphones but for small and medium sized devices, so, smartphones, digital cameras, headphones, headsets, tablets.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D, MT), Rapporteur, This is a problem that each and every citizen throughout our Union is feeling when we travel and we have to gather for three different chargers for our devices. This is a problem that we face in our workplace and in our homes, where each and every one of us has a cupboard full of different chargers with the majority being totally useless for us.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D, MT), Rapporteur, Our consumers will have a choice to buy a device without a charger and not being penalised for that. But this will definitely, at the same time, be very beneficial for our sustainability and our environment. We are generating 11.000 to 13.000 tons of e-waste, electronic waste, every year, useless waste. In our homes, basically with every three chargers that we get with different devices that we buy one of these charges, we don't even remove it from the packaging because it's totally useless.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D, MT), Rapporteur, Now we are heading for a more ambitious end to have just one single USB-C type of charger for small and medium sized electronic equipment.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D, MT), Rapporteur, <p>Our priority as the European Parliament and also as an internal market committee is our consumers. On one hand, we don't want to stifle innovation because it's really important that innovation will continue to grow, especially when it comes, for example, to do wireless charging technology but at the same time, it's really important that our consumers will not continue to shoulder along this burden of having to buy these useless chargers. </p>

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D, MT), Rapporteur, It is not an issue of imposing just one common charger. It's an issue of giving information to our consumers and also giving them the option to buy a device with or without a charger.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D, MT), Rapporteur, We will end up in a situation where we are producing less electronic waste because ultimately our consumers will be using the same charger for different devices. So if a device comes obsolete, you can still use the charger of that particular device, so you don't need to throw it away. And also, we will be helping directly the environment.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D, MT), Rapporteur, The proposal of the Commission is for the directive to come into effect in a period of 12 months. Our ambition is to conclude this political negotiations and process by mid next year, so that in a year and a half our consumers will start feeling the beneficial effects of having this common charger throughout our Union.

Common Chargers: statement by Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D,MT), rapporteur

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