Activities of Stanislav POLČÁK related to 2023/0085(COD)
Plenary speeches (1)
Substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive) (A9-0056/2024 - Cyrus Engerer, Andrus Ansip)
Amendments (26)
Amendment 58 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 1
Recital 1
(1) Claiming to be “green” and sustainable has become a competitiveness factor, with green products registering greater growth than standard products as consumer interest grows, particularly in the younger generation. If goods and services offered and purchased on the internal market are not as environmentally friendly as presented, this would mislead the consumers, hamper the green transition and prevent the reduction of negative environmental impacts. The potential of green markets is not fully realised. Different requirements imposed by national legislation or private initiatives regulating environmental claims create a burden for companies in cross-border trade, as they need to comply with different requirements in each Member State. This affects their capacity to operate in and take advantage of the internal market. At the same time, market participants have difficulties with identifying reliable environmental claims and making optimal purchasing decisions on the internal market. With a proliferation of different labels and calculation methods on the market, it is difficult for consumers, businesses, investors and stakeholders to establish if claims are trustworthy.
Amendment 76 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 15
Recital 15
(15) In order to ensure that consumers are provided with reliable, comparable and verifiable information which enables them to make more environmentally sustainable decisions and to reduce the risk of ‘greenwashing, it is necessary to establish requirements for substantiation of explicit environmental claims. Such substantiation should take into account internationally recognised and up-to-date scientific approaches to identifying and measuring environmental impacts, environmental aspects and environmental performance of products or traders, and it should result in reliable, transparent, comparable and verifiable information to the consumer.
Amendment 85 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 18
Recital 18
(18) In line with Directive 2005/29/EC as amended by the proposal for a Directive on empowering consumers for the green transition, the trader should not present requirements imposed by law on products within a given product category as a distinctive feature of the trader’s offer or advertise benefits for consumers that are considered as common practice in the relevant market. The information used to substantiate explicit environmental claims should therefore make it possible to identify the product’s or trader’s environmental performance in comparison to the common practice for products in the respective product group, such as food, or in the respective sector. This is necessary to underpin the assessment whether the explicit environmental claims can be made with regard to a given product or trader in line with the function of an environmental claim, which is to demonstrate that a product or trader has a positive impact or no impact on the environment, or that a product or a trader is less damaging to the environment than other products or traders. The common practice could be equivalent to the minimum legal requirements that are applicable to the specific environmental aspect or environmental performance, for example as regards product composition, mandatory recycled content or end-of-life treatment. However, in case majority of products within the product group or majority of traders within the sector perform better than those legal requirements, the minimum legal requirements should not be considered as common practice.
Amendment 103 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 23
Recital 23
(23) The information used to substantiate explicit environmental claims should be science based, and any lack of consideration of certain environmental impacts or environmental aspects should be carefully consideredreduced to a minimum and only permitted on an exceptional basis in duly justified cases.
Amendment 201 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point i
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point i
Amendment 239 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 2
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 2
Amendment 262 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 16
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 16
(16) ‘public’ means one or more natural or legal persons and their associations, traders or groups;Does not affect the English version.)
Amendment 288 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) rely on widely recognised scientific evidence that fully reflects the current state of knowledge, use accurate information and take into account relevant international standards;
Amendment 316 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point e
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point e
(e) demonstrate that the claim idoes not equivafully reflenct tohe requirements imposed by law on products within the product group, or traders within the sector;
Amendment 322 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point f
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point f
Amendment 335 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point g
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point g
(g) identify whether improving environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance subject to the claim also leads to significant harm in relation tonegative environmental impacts on climate change, resource consumption and circularity, sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, pollution, biodiversity, animal welfare and ecosystems;
Amendment 374 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 2
Article 3 – paragraph 2
2. Where it is demonstrated that significant environmental impacts that are not subject to the claim exist but there is no widely recognised scientific evidence to perform the assessment referred to in point (c) of paragraph 1, the trader making the claim on another aspect shall take account of available information and, if necessary, update the assessment without undue delay in accordance with paragraph 1 once widely recognised scientific evidence is available.
Amendment 403 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 5 – introductory part
Article 3 – paragraph 5 – introductory part
5. When specifying further the requirements for substantiation of explicit environmental claims in accordance with previous paragraph, the Commission shall take into account up-to-date scientific or other available technical information, including relevant international standards, and where relevant consider the following:
Amendment 452 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 4
Article 5 – paragraph 4
4. Where the explicit environmental claim is related to future environmental performance of a product or trader it shall include a specific and time-bound commitment for improvements inside own operations and value chains.
Amendment 505 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 7
Article 5 – paragraph 7
7. The requirements set out in paragraphs 2, 3 and 6 shall not apply to traders that are microenterprises within the meaning of Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC unless they request the verification with the aim of receiving the certificate of conformity in accordance with Article 10.
Amendment 527 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point a
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point a
(a) information about the ownership and the decision-making bodies of the environmental labelling scheme is transparent, accessible free of charge online, easy to understand and sufficiently detailed;
Amendment 530 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point b
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point b
(b) information about the objectives of the environmental labelling scheme and the requirements and procedures to monitor compliance of the environmental labelling scheme are transparent, accessible free of charge online, easy to understand and sufficiently detailed;
Amendment 573 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1
Article 8 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1
Member States shall ensure that environmental labelling schemes established by private operators after [OP: Please insert the date = the date of transposition of this Directive] are only approved if those schemes provide added value in terms of their environmental ambition, including notably their extent of coverage of environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance, or of a certain product group or sector and their ability to support the green transition of SMEs, as compared to the existing Union, national or regional schemes referred to in paragraph 3, and provided they meet the requirements of this Directive.
Amendment 592 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 7
Article 8 – paragraph 7
7. The Commission shall publish and regularly thereafter keep-up-to date a list of officially recognised environmental labels that are allowed to be used on the Union market after [OP: Please insert the date = the date of transposition of this Directive] pursuant to paragraphs 3, 4 and 5.
Amendment 608 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 1
Article 9 – paragraph 1
Member States shall ensure that the information used for substantiation of explicit environmental claims is regularly reviewed and updated by traders. This review and update shall be carried out without undue delay when there are circumstances that may affect the accuracy of a claim, and in any event no later than 5 years from the date when the information referred to in Article 5(6) is provided or is last updated. In the review, the trader shall revise the used underlying information to ensure that the requirements of Articles 3 and 4 are fully complied with.
Amendment 616 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 1
Article 10 – paragraph 1
1. Member States shall set up procedures for verifying compliance of the substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims againstwith the requirements set out in Articles 3 to 7.
Amendment 675 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 11 – paragraph 3 – point a
Article 11 – paragraph 3 – point a
(a) the verifier shall be independent of the product bearing, oras well as the trader associated to, the environmental claim;
Amendment 702 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – point b
Amendment 720 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 13 – paragraph 3
Article 13 – paragraph 3
3. Where there is more than one competent authority in their territory, Member States shall ensure that the respective duticompetences of those authorities are clearly defined and that appropriate communication and coordination mechanisms are established.
Amendment 726 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 15 – paragraph 3
Article 15 – paragraph 3
3. Where, further to the evaluation referred to in the first subparagraph, the competent authorities find that the substantiation and communication of the explicit environmental claim or the environmental labelling scheme does not comply with the requirements laid down in this Directive, they shall notify the trader making the claim about the non- compliance and require that trader to take all appropriate corrective action within 30 days to bring the explicit environmental claim or the environmental labelling scheme into compliance with this Directive or to cease, without undue delay, the use of and references to the non-compliant explicit environmental claim. Such action shall be as effective and rapid as possible, while complying with the principle of proportionality and the right to be heard.
Amendment 755 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 17 – paragraph 2 – point e
Article 17 – paragraph 2 – point e
(e) any previous infringements of the provisions of this Directive by the natural or legal person held responsible;