Stop-the-Clock? Or Much Ado About Nothing

Ivo Erens - 12 October 2025 -
Illustration of two men: one looks annoyed while the other cheerfully holds a dead sparrow. Text on the image reads: "Stop-the-Clock Or much ado about nothing – BLOG | Ivo’s Take – de vib fabriek."

At the end of September, the Council of the European Union issued a press release suggesting that ‘stop-the-clock’ has become a reality and that certain deadlines have been postponed until 1 January 2028.

We’ve received so many questions and references about this that I figured it was time for another ‘Ivo’s Take’ blog to clear things up a bit.

What’s going on?

Let’s start from the beginning.

Procedurally, proposals within the EU must be approved by three institutions: the European Commission, the Parliament, and the Council. Only once all three have given their approval is a proposal officially adopted and published.

During each stage of approval, institutions can still make amendments - meaning the process starts all over again. It’s time-consuming and often unpredictable.

Where do things stand now?

In the case of ‘stop-the-clock’, the Commission has made the proposal, the Council has approved it, and it’s now with the Parliament. In other words, it’s not official yet - only two of the three institutions have agreed so far!

The proposal also applies only to certain aspects of the CLP revision, not the full revision as the press release might suggest. It merely proposes postponed deadlines for the following areas:

  • Mandatory label update deadlines
  • Label formatting
  • Advertising
  • Distance sales
  • Cement and fuel stations

All other requirements - such as refill stations, substances with more than one constituent, EU supplier obligations, C&L notification, and so on - remain unchanged in the current proposal.

Much Ado About Nothing

We’ll all need to be patient for a little while longer and wait to see what Parliament will decide.

This is a press release with little real news value for our industry. It’s understandable that broader interests are at play and that such releases are used to put pressure on other ongoing processes, such as the OMNIBUS discussions.

However, in this case, it has caused a lot of confusion - and for now, we’ve gotten excited about something that, in reality, changes very little.

As always, we’ll keep you updated!