Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), rapporteur on the final vote on Common charger in the European Parliament, gives a press conference after the final vote in plenary.

Press conference by Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), rapporteur, on the final vote on common charger

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D, MT), Rapporteur, I believe that today is a very important day, a very significant day for European consumers after ten years of waiting. After ten years, we saw a number of advancements during these past years. Basically from a situation where we had 33 different chargers, only for mobile phones, today, we have not more than three different chargers for smartphones. And that is why ultimately, when we started, when we continued to lobby during this past legislature, we wanted to extend the scope of this proposal to more products.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), Rapporteur, And basically, this was one of the biggest achievements. If you look at the initial proposal of the European Commission, which was published a year ago, and you look at the final results, final outcome that we voted today, the package that we managed to negotiate during the last trialogues before the summer recess, one of the biggest changes that you can see is that basically we have doubled the scope when it comes to different categories of products.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), Rapporteur, We managed to include very important products which consumers use on a daily basis, including laptops, which will come into scope in 2026. We have included e-readers, portable keyboards, portable laptops, portable speakers, earbuds, headphones. These are all products that we are filling all our drawers with a lot of different charges to charge on a daily basis, which now will be falling under the scope, as the original list that the Commission published in its original proposal a year ago.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), Rapporteur, Other important achievements which reflect the message portrayed from the very beginning of the discussion within the Internal Market Committee is, for example, to do something about wireless technology. It would have been useless to regulate wireless technology without taking care also of the future and also the present charging technologies, which is wireless technology. We closed all back doors for companies to do away with standardisation obligations for wireless technology and to shift totally to wireless. This could have been a reality for some brands, especially.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), Rapporteur, And therefore, within two years time, the European Commission should and must initiate a process with the European standardisation authorities to have also a common standard, common denominator rules, also for wireless technologies. The environment is going to benefit with this proposal because ultimately we will be producing 11,000 tons of electronic waste less every year.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), Rapporteur, Our consumers will be benefiting because they will be keeping in their pockets more than a quarter of a billion euros every year from unused or extra chargers that we are putting on the market, with all the pressures that we are putting on environmental sustainability, with the use of non-sustainable resources to produce these chargers, and therefore, this will be beneficial to consumers, to businesses, and also to to our to our environment.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), Rapporteur, We are also harmonising charging speed when it comes to fast charging technologies. We are also, and I think this is also a very important element for consumers to make the sustainable choice for consumers, to do the sustainable option, we are also focussing on information, on labelling, on pictograms, so that when you go and buy your product, the first thing that you see on the packaging of the product is basic information, easily legible for consumers to see if the charge that is included the maximum and the minimum power requirements and charging requirements of the charger of the product that they are going to buy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), Rapporteur, Therefore, consumers can make the best choice out of their different choices that they have. The basic choice will be the bundled option product with their charger and the unbundled option. Then consumers will choose which option to buy. Again, and I always reiterate this point, because a lot of citizens, when we speak about the common charger are asking these questions, but this will be applicable only for European Union manufacturers, will also be applicable to third country companies established outside of the EU, but are targeting directly our consumers and the European single market?

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), Rapporteur, Yes, this would also be applicable to these companies. So each and every brand, but after autumn of 2024 for the 13 categories of products and after 2026 for laptops. Yes, if they want to sell their products within the European Single Market, if they want to target European consumers, their products have to be based upon this proposal. Therefore, it falls within the standard that we are moving forward today to have therefore this single universal European charger applicable for all the products coming both from the EU and also from outside of the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), Rapporteur, Therefore, I believe that this would bring a lot of changes within the European Union when it comes to consumer rights, when it comes to also habits upon which one makes his choices as a consumer when buying these particular products. But we also wish that these ideas also are replicated and are taken on board within and in other continents.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), Rapporteur, We are already seeing a number of developments taking place and a number of discussions taking place outside of the European Union. So hopefully not only EU consumers will benefit from the common charger, but also consumers coming from other continents will be able also to benefit from the common charger. Because the environment will ultimately benefit, consumers will benefit and businesses will also benefit from this proposal.

Press conference by Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&D, MT), rapporteur, on the final vote on common charger

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