Labels to help consumers choose ‘greener’ products

An existing EU labelling scheme for energy-using products should be expanded to cover all manufactured goods, says the latest draft of an upcoming Commission action plan on sustainable consumption and production (SCP), scheduled for official publication on 14 May.

Under the draft action plan, the 2005 Eco-design Directive, which currently covers energy-using products (EuPs), would be expanded to include non energy-using items like clothing and footwear, furniture, cleaning products, windows, doors, insulation materials, irrigation equipment, concrete products and plasterboard.

An earlier draft had identified only windows, baths, showers and taps as potential new products to be included (EURACTIV 10/04/08). 

While not all products will be required to physically bear a label, they will nonetheless by scrutinised on the basis of a life-cycle assessment of their ‘eco performance’, including energy and resource use. 

Products that do not meet the minimum criteria set out in the revised directive would be kept off the EU market. 

‘Best performing’ products, on the other hand, would be encouraged, including through preferential public procurement rules that are established based on a common benchmark for a given product group. The Commission argues that common EU-wide benchmark is necessary to harmonise criteria for ‘green’ public procurement across member states and to avoid distortions in the internal market. 

As for fiscal incentive mechanisms like tax breaks for green goods, these “will be analysed further and the Commission will assess the need for further initiatives at Community level regarding fiscal or financial incentives,” according to the draft.

The EU’s voluntary eco-label scheme will also be expanded according to the draft proposal, with the process for obtaining an eco-label to be “streamlined and simplified”.

Under current rules, eco-labels are awarded to new products based on a committee procedure, with member state experts voting on a Commission proposal to grant the label to certain products. 

The regime came under scrutiny last week (24 April), when the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) accused the Commission of trying to undermine and weaken the legitimacy of the eco-label after it tried to grant the label to ‘problematic substances’ such as flame retardants and biocides. 

Read more with Euractiv

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