Repairers, fixers and tinkerers all over the world celebrated International Repair Day on Saturday 19th of October 2024. Thousands of events took place around the globe, as shown by the global IRD events map developed by the Open Repair Alliance (ORA). As Right to Repair Europe, we hosted a webinar on Tuesday 15th of October to discuss the current state of right to repair in Europe.
The ORA presented main findings from open repair data stemming from community repair initiatives. The data covers what type of product categories people wish to fix versus what is covered by current legislation. Against this backdrop, we discussed what was achieved during the past mandate (Ecodesign Regulation, R2R Directive, Battery Regulation), what this means for repair and what is still missing to achieve a thriving repair and circular economy.
We were delighted to see so much involvement and participation from the audience (200+ participants!) in the discussion and Q&A with representatives from the EU Commission Ada Preziosi (DG JUST) and Wojtek Sitarz (DG ENV).
This week, the Open Repair Alliance also published their report “The rise of community repair: the people and the data building a movement”. This report presents findings from community repair data, showcasing what items people want to repair and how little is currently covered by repair legislation. Access the full report here!
We as Right to Repair Europe also released our latest policy paper “Current state of EU right to repair”, where we take stock of recent policy developments for repair, analyse the current EU legislative landscape, and highlight gaps to be addressed. Check it out here!
If you missed the webinar, check out the recording below!
All the slides used in the presentations are also available here, and a written summary of the webinar with its main takeaways and discussion points is available here.
AGENDA
Housekeeping and moderation by Cristina Ganapini, Coordinator of the Right to Repair Europe Coalition
Opening by Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice
Presentations:
- Ugo Vallauri from The Restart Project will present the ORA report on open repair data
- Thomas Opsomer from iFixit will take stock of the missing pieces in the recent policy developments
- Luisa Denter from Germanwatch will explain the importance of circular economy for a resilient industry
Discussion with:
- Ada Preziosi, Legal Officer, DG JUST, Unit B.2 – Consumer Law, European Commission
- Wojtek Sitarz, Policy Officer, DG ENV, Unit B.1 – Circular Economy, Sustainable Production & Consumption, European Commission
Q&A with the audience