Activities of Achille VARIATI related to 2023/0085(COD)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (Green Claims Directive)
Amendments (26)
Amendment 27 #
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 that 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 usual, 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. 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, 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- relatedFor those reasons, claims shoulbased 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 climating, which claim that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, will be prohibited.
Amendment 32 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 26 a (new)
Recital 26 a (new)
(26a) Widely recognised scientific evidence indicates that the assessment of a claim should be based on methodologies, approaches or studies that have been developed in line with best practices in terms of transparency and independently peer reviewed by the scientific community, published in scientific journals and, where available, take account of the existing international standards that are relevant to the claim that is made, such as ISO or CEN/CENELEC standards.
Amendment 34 #
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 37 #
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, 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 48 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 47 a (new)
Recital 47 a (new)
(47a) Regular revisions of environmental labelling schemes are of fundamental importance in order to ensure their continuous improvement. For this reason, this Directive should ensure that the verification and certification of the substantiation and communication of environmental labelling schemes ensures their continuous improvement.
Amendment 53 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 54
Recital 54
(54) SMicro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should be able to benefit from the opportunities provided by the market for more sustainable products but they could face proportionately higher costs and difficulties with some of the requirements on substantiation and verification of explicit environmental claims. The Member States should provide adequate information and raise awareness of the ways to comply with the requirements of this Directive, ensure targeted and specialised training, and provide specific assistance and support, including financial, to micro enterprises and SMEs wishing to make explicit environmental claims on their products or as regards their activities. Member States actions should be taken in respect of applicable State aid rules.
Amendment 65 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – introductory part
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – introductory part
2. This Directive does not apply to environmental labelling schemes or to explicit environmental claims regulated by or substantiated and verified by rules established in:
Amendment 66 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 9 a (new)
Recital 9 a (new)
(9 a) Within the context of the European Green Deal, the EU Action Plan Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil (COM 2021/400, the European Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (COM/2020/667) and the European Union Strategic Approach to Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (COM/2019/128), the healthcare sector plays a relevant role for environmental pollution reduction. In this perspective, establishing a proper regulatory framework for using green claims relating to sustainability, biodegradability, circularity and origin of the product’s components both for medicinal products (according to Directive 2001/83) and medical devices (according to Regulations 2017/745), would be crucial to encourage companies contribution to environmental objectives and guarantee reliable communication to consumers.
Amendment 87 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) rely on widely recognised scientific evidence, including methods assessed and validated by the European Commission, use accurate information and take into account relevant international standards;
Amendment 93 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point c a (new)
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point c a (new)
(ca) For product categories which have developed a Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR), existing PEFCR may be used as a benchmark;
Amendment 98 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point e
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point e
(e) demonstrate that the claim is not equivalent to requirements imposed by law on products within the product group, or traders within the sector. Existing PEFCR may be used as benchmark, if available;
Amendment 132 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 4 a (new)
Article 5 – paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Explicit environmental claims based on greenhouse gas emissions offsetting which claim that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, shall be prohibited.
Amendment 137 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 – point f
Article 5 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 – point f
Amendment 145 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point d
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point d
(d) the requirements for the environmental labelling scheme have been developed by experts that can ensure their scientific robustness and have been submitted for consultation to a heterogeneous group of stakeholderstakeholders that apply or are impacted by the labelling scheme or the stakeholders´ representatives that hasve reviewed them and ensured their relevance from a societal perspective;
Amendment 146 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point f
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point f
(f) the environmental labelling scheme sets out transparent 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 scheme.
Amendment 147 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point f a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point f a (new)
(fa) the environmental labelling scheme regularly reviews its objectives, its strategies, and the performance of its tools and systems, based on the latest best practices, scientific data and evidence.
Amendment 153 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 8 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2
Article 8 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2
The documents referred to in the first subparagraph shall be made publicly available and shall be submitted to the Commission in case of schemes referred to in paragraph 4 or to the Member States’ authorities in case of schemes referred to in paragraph 5, together with the certificate of conformity for environmental labelling schemes drawn up in accordance with Article 10.
Amendment 156 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 1
Article 9 – paragraph 1
Member States shall ensure that the information, tools and methodologies 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. 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 157 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 2
Article 10 – paragraph 2
2. Member States shall set up procedures for verifying the compliance of environmental labelling schemes with the requirements set out in Article 8. The Commission shall verify those procedures to guarantee harmonisation in the Union market.
Amendment 160 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 4
Article 10 – paragraph 4
4. The verification of the information, tools and methodologies 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.
Amendment 162 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 9
Article 10 – paragraph 9
9. TBy 12 months after the entry into force of this Directive, the Commission shall adopt implementing acts to set out details regarding the form of the certificate of conformity referred to in paragraph 5 and the technical means for issuing such certificate of conformity. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 19.
Amendment 166 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 11 – paragraph 1
Article 11 – paragraph 1
1. The verifier shall be a third-party conformity assessment body accredited in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 765/2008113 of the European Parliament and of the Council113 or Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council 113a. __________________ 113 Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing of products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 339/93 (OJ L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 30). 113a Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 amending Regulation (EU) No 537/2014, Directive 2004/109/EC, Directive 2006/43/EC and Directive 2013/34/EU, as regards corporate sustainability reporting
Amendment 168 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 12 – title
Article 12 – title
Amendment 170 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Member States, in cooperation with the Commission, shall take appropriate measures to help micro, small and medium sized enterprises to apply the requirements set out in this Directive. Those measures shall at least include guidelines or similar mechanisms to raise awareness of waywith specific examples and procedures to comply with the requirements on explicit environmental claims. In addition, without prejudice to applicable state aid rules, such measures mayshall include one or more of the following:
Amendment 183 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 16 a (new)
Article 16 a (new)
Article 16a Consultation Forum The Commission shall ensure that when it conducts its activities, it observes a balanced participation of Member States’ representatives and all relevant interested parties involved in the development of secondary legislation on explicit environmental claims, such as industry, including SMEs and craft industry, farmers, trade unions, traders, retailers, importers, environmental protection groups and consumer organisations. Those parties shall contribute, in particular, to preparing the delegated acts referred to in paragraph 4 of Article 3.
Amendment 508 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 8 a (new)
Article 5 – paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Environmental claims are communicated in a language that can be undestood by consumers in the Member States where the product or service is marketed.