Activities of Gilles LEBRETON related to 2023/0085(COD)
Legal basis opinions (0)
Amendments (39)
Amendment 16 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 9
Recital 9
(9) Within the context of the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy, and in accordance with the target of achieving 25% of EU agricultural land under organic farming by 2030 and a significant increase in organic aquaculture and with the Action Plan on the Development of Organic Production (COM(2021) 141), organic farming and organic production need to be developed further. As regards Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council73 , this Directive should not apply to environmental claims on organically certified products substantiated on the basis of that Regulation, related, for instance, to the use of pesticides, fertilisers and anti-microbials or, for instance, to positive impacts of organic farming on biodiversity, soil or water74 unless the comparative explicit claim relates to a product complying with the requirements of Regulation 2018/848 vis-à-vis a like- product which does not fall within the scope of that Regulation. It also has a positive impact on biodiversity, it creates jobs and attracts young farmers. Consumers recognise its value. In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/848, the terms “bio” and “eco” and their derivatives, whether alone or in combination, are only to be used in the Union for products, their ingredients or feed materials that fall under the scope of that Regulation where they have been produced in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/848. For instance, in order to call the cotton “eco”, it has to be certified as organic, as it falls within the scope of Regulation (EU) 2018/848. On the contrary, if the dishwasher detergent is called “eco”, this does not fall within the scope of Regulation (EU) 2018/848, and is instead regulated by the provisions of Directive 2005/29/EC. __________________ 73 Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 (OJ L 150, 14.6.2018, p. 1). 74 https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/system/files /2023-01/agri-market-brief-20-organic- farming-eu_en_1.pdf
Amendment 20 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 16
Recital 16
(16) The assessment made to substantiate explicit environmental claims needs to consider the full or partial life- cycle of the product or of the overall activities of the trader and should not omit any relevant environmental aspects or environmental impacts, taking into consideration long-term business strategies, and all positive externalities of all production systems. The benefits claimed should not result in an unjustified transfer of negative impacts to other stages of the life cycle of a product or trader, or to the creation or increase of other negative environmental impacts.
Amendment 23 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 19
Recital 19
(19) It would be misleading to consumers if an explicit environmental claim pointed to the benefits in terms of environmental impacts or environmental aspects while omitting that the achievement of those benefits leads to negative trade-offs on other environmental impacts or environmental aspects. To this end the information used to substantiate explicit environmental claims should ensure that the interlinkages between the relevant environmental impacts and between environmental aspects and environmental impacts can be identified along with potential trade-offs. The assessment used to substantiate explicit environmental claims should identify if improvements on environmental impacts or environmental aspects lead to the kind of trade-offs that significantly worsen the performance as regards other environmental impacts or environmental aspects, for example if savings in water consumption lead to a notable increase in greenhouse gas emissions, or in the same environmental impact in another life-cycle stage of the product, for example CO2 savings in the stage of manufacturing leading to a notable increase of CO2 emissions in the use phase. For example, a claim on positive impacts from efficient use of resources in intensive agricultural practices may mislead consumers due to trade-offs linked to impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems or animal welfare. An environmental claim on textiles containing plastic polymer from recycled PET bottles may also mislead consumers as to the environmental benefit of that aspect if the use of this recycled polymer competes with the closed-loop recycling system for food contact materials which is considered more beneficial from the perspective of circularity.
Amendment 29 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 22
Recital 22
(22) Traders are more and more interested in making environmental claims related to future environmental performance of a product or trader, including by joining initiatives that are promoting practices which could be conducive to a reduced environmental impact or to more circularity. These claims should be substantiated in line with the rules applicable to all explicit environmental claims and may include a time-bound aspiration for improvements inside own operations and value chains.
Amendment 33 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 28
Recital 28
(28) When setting up the requirements for substantiation and communication and verification of explicit environmental claims, including by delegated acts adopted by the Commission, the difficulties that traders may encounter in gathering information from actors throughout their value chain or on the product’s overall life- cycle, especially for services or where there is insufficient scientific evidence, should be taken into account. This is important for example for services such as electronic communications services, for which it can be difficult to define the scope and system boundaries, e.g. where the life- cycle starts and where it finishes and even more where supply chains are complex and not stable, e.g. in cases where many equipment or components are manufactured by a multitude of enterprises outside the EU, and thus sustainability related information might not be easily accessible to EU traders concerned.
Amendment 41 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 32
Recital 32
(32) The Commission Recommendation (EU) 2021/2279 contains guidance on how to measure the life cycle environmental performance of specific products or organisations and how to develop Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCRs) and Organisation Environmental Footprint Sectorial Rules (OEFSRs) that allow comparison of products to a benchmark. Such category rules for specific products or traders can be used to support the substantiation of claims in line with the requirements of this Directive. Therefore, the Commission should be empowered to adopt delegated acts to establish product group or sector specific rules where this may have added value. However, in case the Product Environmental Footprint method does not yet cover an impact category, which is relevant for a product group, the adoption of PEFCR may take place only once these new relevant environmental impact categories have been added. For example, as regards marine fisheries, the PEFCR should for example reflect the fisheries- specific environmental impact categories, in particular the sustainability of the targeted stock. Concerning space, the PEFCR should reflect defence and space- specific environmental impact categories, including the orbital space use. As regards food and agricultural products, biodiversity and nature protection, as well as farming practices, including positive externalities of extensive farming and animal welfaredifferent farming methods and forest management practices, should, for example, also be integrated before the adoption of PEFCR could be considered. As regards textiles, the PEFCR should for example reflect the microplastics release, before the adoption of PEFCR could be considered.
Amendment 44 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 35
Recital 35
(35) In order to facilitate consumers’ choices of more sustainable products and to incentivise efforts of traders to lower their environmental impacts, when the claim communicated relates to future environmental performance, it should as a priority be based on improvements inside trader’s own operations and value chains rather than relying on offsetting of greenhouse has emissions or other environmental impacts. Thus, allowing for communication on long-term business strategies.
Amendment 51 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 52 a (new)
Recital 52 a (new)
(52a) With a view to facilitating compliance with all the requirements of this Directive, Member States should provide for simplified procedures for micro-enterprises so as to lighten the associated administrative and bureaucratic burdens.
Amendment 54 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 54 a (new)
Recital 54 a (new)
(54a) To help micro, small and medium- sized enterprises to apply the rules of this Directive, the European Commission should provide targeted and specialised training, as well as information campaigns to raise companies’ awareness of both how to use these instruments and the specific assistance and support available.
Amendment 55 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 60
Recital 60
(60) When competent authorities detect an infringement of requirements of this Directive they should carry out an evaluation and based on its results notify the trader about the infringement detected and require that corrective actions are taken by the trader. To minimise the misleading effect on consumers of the non- compliant explicit environmental claim or non-compliant environmental labelling scheme, the trader should be required by the competent authorities to take an effective and rapid action to remediate that infringement. The corrective action required should be proportionate to the infringement detected, the size of the company and its expected harmful effects on the consumers.
Amendment 59 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 64
Recital 64
(64) When setting penalties and measures for infringements, the Member States should foresee that, based on the gravity of the infringement, the level of fines should effectively deprive the non- compliant trader from the economic benefit derived from using the misleading or unsubstantiated explicit environmental claim or non-compliant environmental labelling scheme, including in cases of repeated infringements. The measures for infringements foreseen by the Member States should therefore also include confiscation of the relevant product from the trader or revenues gained from the transactions affected by this infringement or a temporary exclusions or prohibitions from placingtemporary exclusions of the products or making available services on from the Union market. The gravity of the infringement should be the leading criterion for the measures taken by the enforcement authorities. The maximum amount of fines should be dissuasive and set at least at the level of 4% of the trader’s total annual turnover in the Member State or Member States concerned in case of widespread infringements with a Union dimension that are subject to coordinated investigation and enforcement measures in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2017/239488 . __________________ 88 Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 (OJ L 345, 27.12.2017, p. 1).
Amendment 66 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point b
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point b
(b) Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council96 , unless the comparative explicit claim relates to a product complying with the requirements of Regulation 2018/848 vis- à-vis a like-product which does not fall within the scope of the above-mentioned Regulation. __________________ 96 Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 (OJ L 150, 14.6.2018, p. 1).
Amendment 67 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point b
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point b
(b) Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council96 ,in respect of the deadlines set out in Annex IV only; __________________ 96 Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 (OJ L 150, 14.6.2018, p. 1).
Amendment 69 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point o a (new)
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point o a (new)
(oa) Regulations (EU) 2021/2115, 2021/2116, 2021/2117 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and legislative acts based on those Regulations;
Amendment 70 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point o b (new)
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point o b (new)
Amendment 72 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point p a (new)
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point p a (new)
Amendment 74 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1
(1) ‘environmental declaimration’ means environmental claim as defined in Article 2, point (o), of Directive 2005/29/EC;
Amendment 77 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 2
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 2
(2) ‘explicit environmental declaimration’ means an environmental claim that is in textual form or contained in an environmental label;
Amendment 79 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 3
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 3
(3) ‘trader’ means trader as defined in Article 2, point (b), of Directive 2005/29/EC, excluding cooperatives and trade associations;
Amendment 81 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8
Amendment 89 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point c
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point c
(c) demonstrate that environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance that are subject to the claim are significant from a life- cycle perspective, taking into consideration long-term business strategies, and all positive externalities of all production systems;
Amendment 97 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point e
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point e
(e) demonstrate that the declaim is not equivalent toration is related to the requirements imposed by law on products withinfrom the product group, or traders within the sectoron operators in the sector that go beyond the basic standards applied to imported products or common practices for such products;
Amendment 102 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point g
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point g
Amendment 110 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 3
Article 3 – paragraph 3
3. The requirements set out in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply to traders that are microenterprises within the meaning of Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC110 unless they request the verification with the aim of receiving the certificate of conformity in accordance with Article 10. Micro-enterprises may use, upon request, simplified forms to draw up and submit the explicit environmental declarations referred to in these paragraphs. __________________ 110 Commission Recommendation 2003/361/E C of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (OJ L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36).
Amendment 113 #
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 scientific or other available technical information, including relevant international standards, EU standards included in EU regulations that are stricter than international standards and where relevant consider the following:
Amendment 127 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 4 – paragraph 3
Article 4 – paragraph 3
3. The requirements laid down in this Article shall not apply to traders that are microenterprises within the meaning of Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC111 unless they request the verification with the aim of receiving the certificate of conformity in accordance with Article 10. If they so request, micro- enterprises may use simplified forms to draw up and submit the comparative explicit environmental declarations referred to in these paragraphs. __________________ 111 Commission Recommendation 2003/361/E C of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (OJ L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36).
Amendment 131 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 4
Article 5 – paragraph 4
4. Where the eExplicit environmental claim is related to future environmental performance of a product or trader it shall include a time-bound commitmentaspiration for improvements inside own operations and value chains.
Amendment 148 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 2 a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Member States may, however, set up new national or regional environmental labelling schemes for types or categories of products for at least one of the following reasons: the protection of public health; the protection of consumers; the prevention of fraud; the protection of organically produced agri- foodstuffs; the protection of industrial and commercial property rights, indications of provenance, indications of origin and the prevention of unfair competition.
Amendment 158 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 2 a (new)
Article 10 – paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Member States shall put in place simplified procedures for verifying the veracity and communication of explicit environmental declarations by traders that are small and medium-sized enterprises within the meaning of Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC in respect of the requirements set out in Articles 3 to 7.
Amendment 159 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 3
Article 10 – paragraph 3
3. The verification and certification requirements shall apply to traders that are microenterprises within the meaning of Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC only if they so request. Member States shall provide for simplified verification and certification procedures for micro-enterprises to lighten the associated administrative and bureaucratic burdens.
Amendment 169 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Amendment 172 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – point c
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – point c
(c) specialised management and staff trainingfic tools to facilitate lifecycle- analysis calculations for SMEs;
Amendment 173 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – point d
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – point d
(d) organisational and technical assistancepilot projects developed within European programmes.
Amendment 181 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 16
Article 16
Amendment 188 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 17 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1 – point b
Article 17 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1 – point b
Amendment 189 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 17 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1 – point c
Article 17 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1 – point c
Amendment 192 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 21 – paragraph 2
Article 21 – paragraph 2
Amendment 194 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 21 – paragraph 3
Article 21 – paragraph 3
Amendment 203 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 25 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
Article 25 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
They shall apply those measures from [OP please insert the date = 2436 months after the date of entry into force of this Directive].