62 Amendments of Karen MELCHIOR related to 2023/0085(COD)
Amendment 57 #
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 productproducts not making green claims. 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, including of whole sectors and prevent the reduction of negative environmental impacts. Anticompetitive harm and environmental damage may align in creation of greenwashing cartels, whereby companies may collectively overcharge consumers under the excuse of environmental protection, or in cases where companies together soften or eliminate competition on the parameter of product differentiation that is the one of sustainable quality1a. 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, and questions around the transparency of the origin, production process and the life-cycle of a product, it is difficult for consumers, businesses, investors and stakeholders to establish if claims are trustworthy. _________________ 1a OECD 2021: Background Paper by the Secretariat: Environmental Considerations in Competition Enforcement
Amendment 61 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 7
Recital 7
(7) This Directive is part of a set of interrelated initiatives to establish a strong and coherent product policy framework that will make environmentally sustainable products and business models the norm, and not the exception, and on the other hand will ensure that a norm which does not really differ from a common practice cannot be communicated to customers as a sustainable product, and as a result hindering progress towards true sustainability. In order to transform consumption patterns so that no waste is produced in the first place. T, the Directive is complemented, amongst others, by interventions on the circular design of products, on fostering new business models and setting minimum requirements to prevent that environmentally harmful products are placed on the EU market through the proposal for an Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation72 . _________________ 72 Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for setting ecodesign requirements for sustainable products and repealing Directive 2009/125/EC, COM(2022) 132 final
Amendment 70 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 14
Recital 14
(14) The proposal for a Directive on empowering consumers for the green transition which amends Directive 2005/29/EC, sets out a number of specific requirements on environmental claims and prohibits generic environmental claims which are not based on recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim. Examples of such generic environmental claims are ‘eco- friendly’, ‘eco’, ‘green’, ´sustainable´, ‘nature’s friend’, ‘ecological’, and ‘environmentally correct’ . This Directive should complement the requirements set out in that proposal by addressing specific aspects and requirements for explicit environmental claims, including both on- and off-product claims, including taglines, as regards their substantiation, communication and verification. The requirements set out in this Directive should apply to specific aspects of explicit environmental claims and will prevail over the requirements set out in Directive 2005/29/EC with regard to those aspects in case of conflict, pursuant to Article 3(4) of that Directive.
Amendment 79 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 16
Recital 16
(16) The assessment made to substantiate explicit environmental claims needs to consider the life-cycle of the product or of the overall activities of the trader and should not omit any relevant environmental aspects or environmental impacts. 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 and should be done in an EU harmonized and standardized way in order to minimize the risk of greenwashing, and to create predictability and a cost-efficient structure for the companies producing the products and traders.
Amendment 83 #
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. Also, existing certification schemes and their trademarks, such as certification schemes characterised by chain of custody certification which are open to fraud or which cannot reliably guarantee legality of the production for given eco-labelled products, should in case used in business- to-consumer commercial practice be verified for full compliance with requirements under the Directive so as to ensure that the consumers are not misled. 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, majority of production processes used for production of 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 88 #
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 consumptiongreenhouse gas savings lead to a notable increase in greenhouse gas emissionwater use or to negative impacts on high- biodiverse ecosystems, 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 green energy may mislead consumers if the green source is biomass coming from forests from another country or another continent and may slow down progress in development of local green energy sources and contribution to energy sovereignty, or 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 94 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 21
Recital 21
(21) Climate-related claims have been shown to be particularly prone to being unclear and ambiguous and to mislead consumers. This relates notably to environmental claims, as addressed in thate products or entities are “climate neutral”, “carbon neutral”, “100% CO2 compensated”, or will be “net-zero” by a given year, or similar. Such statements are often based on “offsetting” of greenhouse gas emissions through “carbon credits” generated outside the company’s value chain, for example from forestry or renewable energy projects. The methodologies underpinning offsets vary widely and are not always transparent, accurate, or consistent. This leads to significant risks of overestimations and double counting of avoided or reduced emissions, due to a lack of additionality, permanence, ambitious and dynamic crediting baselines that depart from business as usuposal for a Directive on empowering consumers for the green transition. This relates notably to environmental claims that products or entities are “climate neutral”, and accurate accounting. These factors result in offset credits of low environmental integrity and credibility that mislead consumers when they are relied upon in explicit environmental claims. Offsetting can also deter traders from emissions reductions in their own operations and value chains“carbon neutral”, “100% CO2 compensated”, or will be “net-zero” by a given year, or similar. In order to adequately contribute to global climate change mitigation targets, traders should prioritise effective reductions of emissions across their own operations and value chains instead of relying on offsets. Any resulting residual emissions will vary by sector-specific pathway in line with the global climate targets and will have to be addressed through removals enhancements. When offsets are used nonetheless, i, and via the use of carbon removal technologies and carbon farming solutions. It is deemed appropriate to address climate- related claims, including claims on future environmental performance, based on offsets in a transparent manner. Therefore, the substantiation of climate- related claims should consider any greenhouse gas emissions offsets used by the traders separately from the trader’s or the product’s greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, this information should also specify the share of total emissions that are addressed through offsetting, whether these offsets relate to emission reductions or removals enhancement, and the methodology applied. The climate-related claims that include the use of offsets have to be substantiated by methodologies that ensure the integrity and correct accounting of these offsets and thus reflect coherently and transparently the resulting impact on the climateways contain certificate of carbon removal credits or carbon farming credits, proving in compliance with the Carbon Removal Certification Framework (2022/0394).
Amendment 108 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 27
Recital 27
(27) Consumers can also be misled by explicit environmental claims that state or imply that a product or trader has less or more environmental impacts or a better or worse environmental performance than other products or traders (‘comparative environmental claims’). Without prejudice to the application, where appropriate, of Directive 2006/114/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council83 , in order to allow the consumers access to reliable information, it is necessary to ensure that comparative environmental claims can be compared in an adequate manner. For instance, cperformance-based certification and process based certification work with different set of indicators, in one instance for example setting specific thresholds that need to be met, and in the other ensuring that a certain procedure is in place. Choosing indicators on the same environmental aspects but using a different formula for quantification of such indicators makes comparisons impossible, and therefore there is a risk of misleading consumers. In case two traders make an environmental claim on climate change, where one considered only direct environmental impacts, whilst the other considered both direct and indirect environmental impacts, these results are not comparable. Also, a decision to make the comparison only at certain stages of a products life cycle can lead to misleading claims, if not made transparent. A comparative environmental claim needs to ensure that also for products with very different raw materials, uses and process chains, like bio-based plastics and fossil- based plastics, the most relevant stages of the life-cycle are taken into account for all products. For example, agriculture or forestry is relevant for bio-based plastics while raw oil extraction is relevant for fossil-based plastics and the question whether a relevant share of the product ends up in landfill is highly relevant to plastics that biodegrade well under landfill conditions but maybe less relevant for plastics that do not biodegrade under such conditions. _________________ 83 Directive 2006/114/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 concerning misleading and comparative advertising (OJ L 376, 27.12.2006, p. 21).
Amendment 109 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 29
Recital 29
(29) For some sectors or for certain products or traders, significant environmental impacts or environmental aspects could be suspected but there might not yet be a recognised scientific method to fully assess those environmental impacts and environmental aspects. Such may be a case of existing sustainability certification schemes which were created in the past due to a significant environmental impact and common illegal activity in a given sector, and claims of which should be assessed for compliance with this Directive. For such cases and while efforts are made to develop methods and gather more evidence to enable the assessment of the respective environmental impact or environmental aspect for those sectors, traders or products, traders should be able to promote their sustainability efforts through publication of company sustainability reporting, factual reporting on the company’s performance metrics and work to reduce energy consumption, including on their websites. This flexibility would maintain and promote the incentives of those sectors or traders to continue their efforts to develop common environmental assessments pursuant to this Directive while providing for the necessary time to complete such work.
Amendment 118 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 31
Recital 31
(31) In order to meet both the needs of traders regarding dynamic marketing strategies and the needs of consumers regarding more detailed, and more accurate, environmental information, the Commission may adopt delegated acts to supplement the provisions on substantiation of explicit environmental claims by further specifying the criteria for such substantiation with regard to certain claims (e.g. climate-related claims, including claims about offsets, “climate neutrality” or similar, sustainable forest management such as ´´this product originates from sustainably managed forests´´, sustainable fisheries, recyclability and recycled content). The Commission should be empowered to further establish rules for measuring and calculating the environmental impacts, environmental aspects and environmental performance, by determining which activities, processes, materials, emissions or use of a product or trader contribute significantly or cannot contribute to the relevant environmental impacts and environmental aspects; by determining for which environmental aspects and environmental impacts primary information should be used; and by determining the criteria to assess the accuracy of primary and secondary information. While in most cases the Commission would consider the need for adopting these rules only after having the results of the monitoring of the evolution of environmental claims on the Union market, for some types of claims it may be necessary for the Commission to adopt supplementary rules before the results of this monitoring are available. For example, in case of climate-related claims it may be necessary to adopt such supplementary acts in order to operationalise the provisions on substantiation of claims based on offsets.
Amendment 128 #
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 forestry and farming practices, including positive externalities of different production systems, of closer-to-nature forest management, extensive farming and animal welfare, 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 131 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 33
Recital 33
(33) Since Directive 2005/29/EC already applies to misleading environmental claims, it enables the national courts and administrative authorities to stop and prohibit such claims. For example, in order to comply with Directive 2005/29/EC, environmental claims should relate only to aspects that are significant in terms of the product’s or trader’s environmental impact. Environmental claims and labelling schemes should also be clear and unambiguous regarding which aspects of the product or trader they refer to and should not omit or hide important information about the environmental performance of the product or trader that consumers need in order to make informed choices. The wording, imagery and overall product presentation, including the taglines, layout, choice of colours, images, pictures, sounds, symbols, trademark or labels, included in the environmental claim should provide a truthful and accurate representation of the scale of the environmental benefit achieved, and should not overstate the environmental benefit achieved. For example, depending on the characteristics of a certification system, an end product may consist of only a certain minimum percentage of certified material or even of no certified material, and this intrinsic characterisics of a scheme should be duly considered in a business-to-consumer commercial practice.
Amendment 135 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 36
Recital 36
(36) Consumers should have easy access to the information on the product or the trader that is the subject of the explicit environmental claim, both on- and off- product, and regarding information substantiating thate claim applicable to the product. This information should also consider needs of older consumers. For that purpose, traders should either provide this information in a physical form or provide a weblink, QR code or equivalent leading todirectly to a section of a website where more detailed information on the substantiation of the explicit environmental claim is made available in at least one of the official languages of the Member State where the claim is made. In order to facilitate the enforcement of this Directive, the weblink, QR code or equivalent should also ensure easy access to the certificate of conformity regarding the substantiation of the explicit environmental claim and the contact information of the verifier who drew up that certificate.
Amendment 145 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 43
Recital 43
(43) In order to combat misleading explicit environmental claims communicated in the form of environmental labels and increase consumer trust in environmental labels, including trademarks and logos of certification schemes, this Directive should establish governance criteria that all environmental labelling schemes are to comply with, complementing thus the requirements set in the said proposal amending Directive 2005/29/EC.
Amendment 147 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 44
Recital 44
(44) In order to avoid further proliferation of national or regional officially recognised EN ISO 14024 type I environmental labelling (‘ecolabelling’) schemes, and other environmental labelling schemes, and to ensure more harmonisation in the internal market, new national or regional environmental labelling schemes should be developed only under the Union law. Nevertheless, Member States can request the Commission to consider developing public labelling schemes at the Union level for product groups or sectors where such labels do not yet exist in Union law, and including where private certification schemes exist, in order to further sectors' ambitions, and where harmonisation and existing potential would bring added value to achieve the sustainability, transparency and internal market objectives in an efficient manner.
Amendment 148 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 46
Recital 46
(46) Environmental labelling schemes established by private operators, if too many and overlapping in terms of scope, may create confusion in consumers or undermine their trust in environmental labels. Therefore, Member States should only allow that existing environmental labelling schemes are depicted in business-to-consumer commercial practice after entering into force of this Directive when in compliance with obligations set in this Directive, and should only allow that new environmental labelling schemes are established by private operators provided that they offer significant added value as compared to the existing national or regional schemes or existing private schemes, compliant with the rules of the Directive, in terms of environmental ambition of the criteria to award the label, coverage of relevant environmental impacts, and completeness of the underlying assessment. Member States should set up a procedure for the approval of new environmental labelling schemes based on a certificate of conformity drawn up by the independent verifier, and assess the claims made by existing environmental and sustainability labelling and certification schemes. This should apply to schemes established in the Union and outside of the Union.
Amendment 152 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 47
Recital 47
(47) In order to provide legal certainty and facilitate enforcement of the provisions on new national and regional officially recognised environmental labelling schemes and new private labelling schemes, the Commission should publish a list of such schemes that may either continue to apply on the Union market or enter the Union market.
Amendment 155 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 48
Recital 48
(48) In order to ensure a harmonised approach by the Member States to the assessment and approval of environmental labelling schemes developed by private operators or of continuation of their use in business-to-consumer commercial practice, and to establish an approval procedure by the Commission for proposed schemes established by public authorities outside of the Union, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to adopt common rules specifying detailed requirements for approval of such environmental labelling schemes, the format and content of supporting documents and rules of procedure to approve such schemes. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council85 . _________________ 85 Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers (OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, p. 13).
Amendment 156 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 49
Recital 49
(49) It is essential that explicit environmental claims and environmental claimbelling schemes reflect correctly the environmental performance and environmental impacts covered by the claim both on- and off-product , and consider the latest scientific evidence. Member States should therefore ensure that the trader making the claim reviews and updates the substantiation and communication of the claims at least every 5 years4 and 8 years respectively to ensure compliance with the requirements of this Directive.
Amendment 158 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 50
Recital 50
(50) To ensure that explicit environmental claims are reliable, it is necessary that Member States set up procedure for verifying that the substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims, including environmental labels, or the environmental labelling schemes including all private certification schemes, comply with the requirements set out in this Directive.
Amendment 159 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 51
Recital 51
(51) In order to allow the competent authorities to control more efficiently the implementation of the provisions of this Directive and to prevent as much as possible unsubstantiated explicit environmental claims, including environmental labels, from appearing on the market, verifiers complying with the harmonised requirements set up by the Directive should check that both the information used for the substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims meet the requirements of this Directive. In order to avoid misleading consumers, the verification should in any case take place before the environmental claims are made public or environmental labels are displayed and as soon as possible after entry into force of this Directive for the claims displayed linked to the existing schemes, including private certification schemes. The verifier can, if appropriate, indicate several ways of communicating the explicit environmental claim that comply with the requirements of this Directive to avoid the need for continuous re-certification in case the way of communication is slightly modified without affecting the compliance with the requirements of this Directive. To facilitate the traders compliance with the rules on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims, including the environmental labels, the verification should take into account the nature and content of the claim or the environmental label, including whether they appear to be unfair in the light of Directive 2005/29/EC.
Amendment 202 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point k
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point k
Amendment 205 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point m
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point m
Amendment 223 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point p
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point p
(p) other existing or future Union rules setting out the conditions under which certain explicit environmental claims about certain products or traders may be or are to be made or Union rules laying down requirements on the assessment or communication of environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance of certain products or traders or conditions for environmental labelling schemes.
Amendment 237 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 2
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 2
(2) ‘explicit environmental claim’ means an environmental claim that is in textual form or contained in an environmental labelor sustainability label, a trademark of an environmental labelling scheme or takes any communication form by a person acting in their commercial capacity, including online;
Amendment 242 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 2 a (new)
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 2 a (new)
(2 a) ´generic environmental claim’ means any environmental claim, on or off-product, where the specification of the claim, such as ´eco- friendly’,´sustainable´, ´sustainable sourcing´, ‘eco’, ‘green’, ‘nature’s friend’, ‘ecological’ and ‘environmentally correct’, is not based on recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim;
Amendment 260 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 15
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 15
(15) ‘secondary information’ means information that is based on other sources than primary information including on-site monitoring, literature studies, engineering studies and patents.
Amendment 280 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point a
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point a
(a) specify if the claim is related to the whole product, part of a product or certain aspects of a product, or to all activities of a trader or a certain part or aspect of these activities and directly applicable to the product, as relevant to the claim;
Amendment 323 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point f
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point f
(f) demonstrate and provide information whetherthat the product or trader which is subject to the claim performs significantly better regarding environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance which is subject to the claim than what is common practice for products in the relevant product group or traders in the relevant sector;
Amendment 330 #
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 leads to significant harm in relation to environmental impacts on climate change and climate change adaptation, resource consumption and circularity, sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, pollution, biodiversity, animal welfare and ecosystems and their functioning;
Amendment 355 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point i
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point i
(i) include all primary information available to the trader for environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance, which are subject to the claim;
Amendment 361 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point j
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point j
(j) include relevant secondary information for environmental impacts, environmental aspects, or environmental performance which is representative of the specific value chain of the product or the traderand true for the product on which a claim is made, in cases where no primary information is available.
Amendment 391 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 4 – introductory part
Article 3 – paragraph 4 – introductory part
4. When the regular monitoring of the evolution of environmental claims referred to in Article 20 reveals differences in the application of the requirements laid down in paragraph 1 for specific claims and such differences create obstacles formay have a negative impact on the functioning of the internal market or competition, or where the Commission identifies that the absence or lack of requirements for specific claims may leads to widespread misleading of consumers, the Commission mayshall adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 18 to specify or supplement the requirements for substantiation of explicit environmental claims laid down in paragraph 1 by:
Amendment 395 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 4 – point a
Article 3 – paragraph 4 – point a
(a) determining the rules for assessing the environmental aspects, environmental impacts and environmental performance, including by determining the activities and their intensity and scale where relevant, processes, materials, emissions or use of a product, which contribute significantly or cannot contribute to the relevant environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance;
Amendment 404 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 5 – point a a (new)
Article 3 – paragraph 5 – point a a (new)
(a a) robustness of the sustainability and environmental labelling schemes, including private certification schemes;
Amendment 406 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 5 – point b
Article 3 – paragraph 5 – point b
(b) the potential contribution of specific product groups or sectors and of ecosystems on which they are based and which they affect to achieving Union climate and environmental, including biodiversity, objectives;
Amendment 416 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. The substantiation of explicit environmental claims that state or imply that a product or trader has less environmental impacts or a better environmental performance than other products or traders (‘comparative environmental claims’) shall, in addition to the requirements set out in Article 3, comply with the following requirements:
Amendment 417 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point a
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point a
(a) the information and data used for assessing the environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance of the products or traders against which the comparison is made, are equivalent to the information and data used for assessing the environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance of the product or trader which is subject to the claim;
Amendment 418 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) the data used for assessing the environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance of the products or traders is generated or sourced in an equivalent manner as the data used for assessing the environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance of the products orf wide array of traders against which the comparison is made;
Amendment 421 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point c
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point c
(c) the coverage of the stages along the value chain is equivalent for the products and traders compared and ensures that the most significant stages are taken into account for all products and traders;
Amendment 423 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point d
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point d
(d) the coverage of environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performances is equivalent for the products andof wide array of traders compared and ensures that the most significant environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performances are taken into account for all products and traders;
Amendment 424 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point e
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point e
(e) assumptions used for the comparison are set in an equivalent manner for the products andof wide array of traders compared.
Amendment 441 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 2
Article 5 – paragraph 2
2. Explicit environmental claims may only cover environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance that are substantiated in accordance with the requirements laid down in Articles 3, 4 and 5 and that are identified as significant for the product or trader concerned in accordance with Article 3 paragraph (1) point (c) or (d).
Amendment 458 #
5. Explicit environmental claims on the cumulative environmental impacts of a product or trader based on an aggregated indicator of environmental impacts can be made only on the basis of rules to calculate such aggregated indicator that are established in the Union lawand fully harmonised by the Union law. This clasification shall be transparently communicated to costumers. Claims on the cumulative environmental impacts shall not take form of a generic environmental claim.
Amendment 475 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 – point a
Article 5 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 – point a
(a) environmental aspects, environmental impacts or environmental performance covered by the claim; for a product resulting from an environmentally-labelled, certified activity always the minimum possible certified content within the product, including if it is zero, shall be included.
Amendment 507 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 8
Article 5 – paragraph 8
8. Where the substantiation of certain environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance is subject to the rules established in delegated acts referred to in Article 3, paragraph 4(a) and paragraph 4(c), the Commission mayshall adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 18 to supplement the requirements for communication of explicit environmental claims set out in Article 5 by specifying further the information that can be or shall be communicated regarding such environmental impacts, environmental aspects or environmental performance, so as to make sure that the consumers are not misled.
Amendment 522 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 7 – paragraph 2
Article 7 – paragraph 2
2. Only environmental labels awarded under environmental labelling schemes established under Union law, ensuring full harmonisation or recognized equivalence of products, may present a rating or score of a product or trader based on an aggregated indicator of environmental impacts of a product or trader.
Amendment 526 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 1
Article 8 – paragraph 1
1. Environmental labelling scheme means a certification scheme established by a public authority or private operators and which certifies that a product, a process or a trader complies with the requirements for an environmental or a sustainability label.
Amendment 529 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point a a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point a a (new)
(a a) it is certified under other than chain of custody certification;
Amendment 531 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point b a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point b a (new)
(b a) the certification scheme is robust, it is designed and implemented to identify and address fraud, with ability to fully track transactions regarding all qualitative and quantitative aspects between entities in the supply chain and providing full assurance over the origin and material certification claim;
Amendment 532 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point b b (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point b b (new)
(b b) there is an assurance of the certified material’s actual physical presence in the end product in every single case at the minimum level of 50%;
Amendment 541 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point d a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point d a (new)
(d a) the scheme is designed in a way that an audit by a verifier, conducted correctly in accordance to all procedures, does not allow for manipulation;
Amendment 542 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point f
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point f
(f) the environmental labelling scheme sets out procedures for dealing with non- compliance and foresees the withdrawal or suspension of the environmental label in case of persistent and flagrant non- compliance with the requirements of the schemeand financial penalties.
Amendment 563 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 4 a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. By ... [2 years from the date of entry into force of this Directive] and every 8 years thereafter, the Commission shall assess the compliance of all the existing private environmental labelling schemes with the Directive. Provided a scheme meets the requirements of this Directive, the scheme may continue to award the environmental or sustainability label in a business-to-consumer commercial practice on the Union market.
Amendment 569 #
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 or other schemes established by private operators referred to in paragraph 3this Article, and meet the requirements of this Directive.
Amendment 582 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 1 – introductory part
Article 8 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 1 – introductory part
In order to receive the approvals referred to in paragraphs 4, 4a and 5, the operators of new environmental labelling schemes shall provide supporting documents setting out the following:
Amendment 587 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 1 – point c
Article 8 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 1 – point c
(c) the evidence the scheme will provide added value as set out in in paragraph 4 for environmental labelling schemes established by public authorities in third countries, or in paragraph 4a and 5 for environmental labelling schemes established by private operators;
Amendment 593 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 7
Article 8 – paragraph 7
7. The Commission shall publish without delay and 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, 4a and 5.
Amendment 607 #
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 reviewed and updated by traders when there are circumstances that may affect the accuracy of a claim, and no later than 5 years from the date when the information referred to in Article 5(6) is provided and no later than 8 years from the date when the environmental labelling schemes appeared on the list referred to in Article 8(7). In the review, the trader shall revise the used underlying information to ensure that the requirements of Articles 3, 4 and 48 are fully complied with.
Amendment 634 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 4
Article 10 – paragraph 4
4. The verification shall be undertaken by a verifier fulfilling the requirements set out in Article 11, in accordance with the procedures referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, before the environmental claim is made public or the environmental label is displayed by a trader. For the existing environmental labelling schemes which are used in the business-to-consumer commercial practice, the procedure regulating their display after entry into force of this Directive is laid down in Article 8.
Amendment 643 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 5
Article 10 – paragraph 5
5. For the purposes of the verification the verifier shall take into account the nature and content of the explicit environmental claim or the environmental and sustainability label.
Amendment 776 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 17 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 2
Article 17 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 2
For the purposes of point (a), Member States shall ensure that when penalties are to be imposed in accordance with Article 21 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2394115 , the maximum amount of such fines being at least at 48 % of the trader’s annual turnover in the Member State or Member States concernedEuropean Union. _________________ 115 OJ L 345, 27.12.2017, p. 1.