On 12 May 2025, the Official Journal of the European Union published council decision (EU) 2025/868 on the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union at the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent organic Pollutants as regards the requests for extension of specific exemptions and the proposals for amendment of Annex A to that Convention.

The main contents of decision (EU) 2025/868 are as follows:

a）to support the listing of chlorinated paraffins with carbon chain lengths in the range C14-17 and chlorination levels at or exceeding 45 per cent chlorine by weight in Annex A, with the specific exemptions recommended by the POPRC , and to request additional specific exemptions for use in certain defence and aerospace applications, such as coatings, lubricants, and ammunition and its packaging, and extended expiry dates for some exemptions for aerospace and defence applications until 2041, with a possible extension of this expiry date until the end of life of equipment and spare parts if those substances are used in such applications;

b）to support the listing of chlorpyrifos in Annex A, with the specific exemptions recommended by the POPRC;

c）to support the listing of long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids, their salts and related compounds in Annex A, with the specific exemptions recommended by the POPRC;

d）to support the proposal submitted by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to amend Annex A to the Convention by adding a specific exemption for certain limited uses of UV-328 in civilian and military aircraft including in relevant spare parts, provided that the exemption applies for as short a period as possible and does not exceed five years;

e）to accept the request submitted by the Republic of Korea to extend the expiry date of the specific exemptions, which will only apply to the Republic of Korea as requesting Party, for the use of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), its salts and PFOA-related compounds, perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride in fire-fighting foam for liquid fuel vapor suppression and liquid fuel fires (Class B fires) in installed systems, including both mobile and fixed systems.

The main uses of the three newly added substances are as follows:

◆ MCCPs: may be used as a flame retardant or plasticizer in plastics, rubbers, inks, paints, adhesives, and surface coatings. They also may be found as impurities in fat-liquoring agents for leather production.

◆ Chlorpyrifos: A pesticides mainly used for controlling agricultural and sanitary pests

◆ LC-PFCAs: widely used in textiles, food packaging, electronic equipment, fire foam, etc., givingproducts with waterproof, oil proof, high temperature resistance and other characteristics.

URL:https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec/2025/868/oj

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