European Right to Repair Campaign
The session introduced the launch of the European Right to Repair, what it entails, some of the challenges as well as opportunities. The EEB, European Environmental Bureau introduced the work that they have been doing in collaboration with the Restart Project to push the Right to Repair at a European level. Representatives from Schraube Locker (Germany), Restarters Norway, Italy, FTC, H.O.P also shared the work that they do to push the right to repair in the consciousness of their political representatives.
For details on the European Right to Repair and call for action : ICYMI: The European Right to Repair campaign
EEB - European Environmental Bureau
They shared the results from the work they did with the Right to Repair Campaign. They produced the Report 'Coolproducts don’t cost the Earth – Report. The report shine the lights on the true cost of planned obsolescence and and provide recommendations to increase the repairability of our everyday products and ensure they last longer.
The EEB and the Right to Repair shared that the EcoDesign Policy around the right to repair had been blocked and redrafted at the Council for Europe. They emphasis the importance to do national campaign to convince countries to support the right to repair.
Joyce - Schraube Locker is a campaign organisation in Germany - http://schraubelocker.eu/
They run a petition in September 2019 and receive 100 000+ signature. They also collaborated with EEB and the independent repair network in germany. Schraube Locker act as a ,ediator, collecting knowledge and motivations to support the repair movement.
Kaja _ Restarters Norway
Kaja shared the story of Henrik Huseby, a person who is being sued by Apple for trademark issues and how they are supporting him by promoting a gofunding campaign to pay for his legal fees. They collaborate with friends of the Earth, the Open Source movement and the agency for consumer right to push the right to repair campaign. Kaja emphasis that they are not part of the EU. Nevertheless, most directives from the EU apply in Norway. They are trying to be forward thinking and innovative in this field.
Sergio - Restarters from Italy
We learnt that one of the country blocking the right to repair at the Council of Europe was Italy. The Restarters, then, developed a campain in relation to that. They received a lot of support from TV radioes and newspaper. They drafted a law and petitioned the public. The law is being considered by the parliament. It is contributing to an accelaration and innovation that may push the EU as well to embrace the right to repair. The law demands for spare parts to be available for 7 years for all new products, to allow the access to everyone, not only professional repairers. They also ask for tax break on repairs like Sweden
Nathan Proctor - F.T.C. USA
Repair businesseses were at the forefront of the campaign. The campaign works across political affiliation. They support repair businesses by developing their leadership in addressing political questions. An interesting story was the one of a military technician who wrote to the Parliament about the repair process of a tank. The perspective from Nathan Proctor was to identify the stories that support the right to repair and to share them. Another soty was the cost of repair for hospital for example
Adele - H.O.P. (more details about the work that they do in later session)
We were then divided into group to discuss how we can support the repair further.
In my group, we discussed how we can reach repair professionals so they can support the repair movement. Kyle broadened our perspective to not only try to reach repair shops but also to consider approaching the people who maintain large infrastructures such as hospital, large companies, the agricultural sector. He indicated how IFIXIT joined some trade unions, developed relationships over few months to then introduce the notion that tackling the right to repair is important.