Newsletter October 2020

Both the European Tourism Convention, organised by the European Commission and the European Tourism Forum, organised by the German Council Presidency, focused on the future strategy of the EU for tourism after a year of disruption caused by COVID-19. At both events, Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton highlighted the need to launch concrete actions to support the recovery of the tourism and travel sector. He highlighted the importance of a close cooperation between…

The review of the Recreational Craft Directive (RCD) has started with the European Commission selecting a consortium of companies tasked with carrying out a study. These are Panteia (the Netherlands), TNO (the Netherlands) and Emisia (Greece). The study has a 10-month timeline and will concentrate on the following major issues as required by the RCD (Article 52): 1) Exhaust emissions, 2) Evaporative emissions and 3) Design categories. EBI has already held an introductory meeting with…

Through a Council Recommendation issued on 13 October, Member States agreed to coordinate their approaches to restricting travel as part of their COVD-19 measures. Until now, national measures on cross-border movement were not coordinated. This Recommendation puts in place common criteria to give a degree of transparency and predictability to future restrictions; however, the Recommendation is not legally binding. Firstly, when deciding whether to restrict movement, Member States will consider three criteria: the notification rate…

On 14 October, the Commission published the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, within the context of the European Green Deal. The document tries to address the negative impacts that harmful chemicals can have on human health and on the environment by proposing specific actions. These include phasing out chemicals like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) from consumer products, minimising their use in all products, and stepping up enforcement of EU rules to ensure compliance with…