How can Digital Product Passports Ensure the Continuing Competitiveness of European Business?

As part of its Circular Economy Action Plan, on March 30 the European Commission presented the presented the Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation (ESPR). A central element of the ESPR is a proposal for a digital product passport; covering all stages of the value chain, this passport will be continuously updated and follow the product throughout its life cycle. The aim of the passport is to provide producers and other key supply chain actors - as well as consumers and market surveillance authorities - with relevant information for ensuring the sustainable management of products. If designed well, and if aligned with existing industry initiatives, these digital product passports could help promote the circular economy and circular business models.

Clearly, however, their introduction will throw up a number of both opportunities and challenges. To discuss these, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise is pleased to invite you to take part in a webinar. This discussion will feature policy makers from the EU institutions, as well as representatives from the business community.

Some of the topics for discussion at the webinar include:

• How do we keep the amount of data included in the digital product passports at a reasonable level?
• How can we maintain trade secrets, by ensuring relevant information is handled securely?
• How can we ensure that the legal and technical aspects of data sharing are respected?
• How do we best establish and maintain effective market surveillance?

Participants:

• Keynote speech by William Neale, Principal adviser for circular economy, DG ENV, European Commission
• Arba Kokalari, Member of the European Parliament, EPP
• Jytte Guteland, Member of the European Parliament, S&D
• Christina Wainikka, Policy Expert on Intellectual Property, Confederation of Swedish Enterprise
• Magnus Nikkarainen, Sustainability Director, Swedish Trade Federation
• Robin Ljungar, Sustainability Manager, Swedish Federation of Wood and Furniture Industry.

The Swedish business community holds strong ambitions for climate and circular action. We support the European Commission’s work on SPI and the concept of product passports. The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise has developed a position paper with our views and principles on digital product passports; you can read our paper here.

For more information, please contact julia.heggenes@swedishenterprise.se