The European Council has decided to postpone application of certain provisions in the rules on the classification, labelling, and packaging of chemicals, with a broad set of provisions in the revised CLP regulation now scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2028. These elements, updated in 2024, had been scheduled for earlier implementation but will be pushed back to give businesses more time to adjust.
The legislation widely known as the ‘Stop-the-clock’, constitutes the first step in the ‘Omnibus VI’ package put forward by the Commission in July 2025. Citing the urgent and substantial implications for companies, the Danish Presidency placed this initiative at the top of its legislative priorities.
The co-legislators adopted the amendment in full, leaving the Commission’s proposal unchanged.
Marie Bjerre, Minister for European affairs of Denmark, said: “The EU’s chemical sector is a cornerstone of Europe’s economy, driving innovation, growth and thousands of high-value jobs across the internal market. With today’s stop-the-clock-adoption, we ensure time and legal certainty for businesses while we make the necessary simplifications that will strengthen the sector’s competitiveness and maintain high standards of safety.”
The new regulation fo chemical packaging and labelling grants businesses additional clarity and more time to prepare, while also giving the European Parliament and the Council more scope to settle the remaining substantive elements in the second section of the ‘Omnibus VI’ package. Work on that part continues, following the Council’s agreement on a negotiating mandate on 5 November 2025. Under the stop-the-clock decision, all application dates tied to transitional requirements, covering relabelling, mandatory formatting rules, advertisements, online and distance sales, and fuel pump labelling, will now fall on 1 January 2028.
Before this change, the CLP regulation for chemical packaging and labelling along with classification, updated in 2024 had set earlier, staggered deadlines, with some measures due on 1 July 2026 and others on 1 January 2027, a timetable that had weighed heavily on many SMEs. Now that the European Council has signed it off, the legislative act is expected to be published in the EU’s Official Journal in the coming days and will enter into force on the twentieth day after publication.