The undersigned associations recognise that, given that consumers can only make more sustainable choices if they have access to reliable, comparable, and verifiable information, it is therefore crucial to ensure that claims made by traders are backed by sufficient evidence while products deliver the environmental benefits that they claim to have. Indeed, the transition to a Circular Economy will not happen without the involvement of informed consumers.
We would like to take this opportunity to communicate our asks on the Commission’s proposal for a Directive for the substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims. These are:
- Ensure consistency of the Directive with relevant EU legislation while maintaining a level-playing field with imported products.
- Ensure (information) requirements are strictly relevant to the substantiation and protect confidential information.
- Clarify rules for the comparison of different product categories and further develop methods to calculate the life-cycle environmental impacts of products.
- Ensure that existing, well-known third-party verified environmental certification schemes and labels are not facing obstacles in their verification.
The full joint statement is available here.
For more information please contact:
Anna Papagrigoraki, Director for Sustainability and Environment, at