# Commission Decision of 9 February 2006 establishing the Community Eco-label working plan (Text with EEA relevance) (2006/402/EC), Division: INTRODUCTION Extent: E+W+S+N.I. The Community Eco-label was introduced in 1992 to encourage businesses to develop goods and services with a reduced environmental impact throughout their whole life-cycle and to provide consumers with better information about these impacts. The Community Eco-label scheme is part of a broader strategy aimed at promoting sustainable production and consumption. This aim can be achieved in the context of a ‘framework for an integrated life-cycle oriented product policy’, as indicated in the Sixth Environmental Action Programme (6EAP). The key objectives are to ensure a high level of protection and to break the link between environmental pressures and economic growth, thus working in the framework of the European Union’s Lisbon Strategy of Economic and Social Renewal (2000) and Sustainable Development Strategy (Gothenburg, 2001). More specifically, the Communication on Integrated Product Policy (IPP) proposes a new strategy to strengthen and refocus product-related environmental policies and develop the market for greener products. The Community Eco-label is one of the tools that can help to reach this aim. Within the Eco-label Scheme there is considerable information and expertise on product policy based on life-cycle thinking which should be made available to stakeholders involved in further developing the Integrated Product Policy approach. In the framework of the shift towards sustainable consumption and production, the new public procurement Directives integrating environmental considerations into public procurement and the recently published Handbook on Environmental Public Procurement open new opportunities for the Community Eco-label. While public purchasers may not explicitly demand products and services bearing the Community Eco-label in their tenders, the new directives offer possibilities to use criteria set out by the Scheme or equivalent when defining performance-based or functional environmental requirements. This should encourage public authorities to take the political decision to green their purchasing via the Community Eco-label and its criteria or other equivalent schemes, which provide a strong product information basis. The Community Eco-label also interrelates with a wide variety of instruments aiming at cleaner production, development and use of environmental technologies. Its structures, procedures and knowledge are recognised as a strong starting point for designing the implementing measures for the proposed directive on the Eco-design of Energy-using Products. A priority field of activities under the Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP), namely design and implementation of performance targets, includes exploring the relationship between the concept of performance targets and the environmental performance of goods and services addressed by EU initiatives like the Community Eco-label. Enlargement, with 10 New Member States in May 2004, has created new conditions for the development of the Community Eco-label and for contributing to the field of environmental communication and awareness-raising. A clear, pan-European Eco-label like the Flower, could make it much easier for consumers to buy green across Europe, while it also helps their understanding of Type I labelling. Well designed, market-based environmental labelling schemes will remain attractive to consumers because of their immediacy and simplicity and because they ensure better and more accessible information on the environment for citizens. They are also business-friendly because they act as product enhancers that offer marketing advantages at the point of sale, if they are developed in partnership with manufacturers and come at a reasonable cost for enterprises. It is clear that the Community Eco-label has not yet achieved satisfactory market penetration. It is now in a better situation than before, with a continuously widening range of product groups (including both goods and services) and with new applications coming in steadily, nevertheless it is clear that the scheme has to be revised if it is to properly achieve its original aims and in particular its active take-up by the business community. In view of the revision of the Community Eco-label Scheme an evaluation study is being carried out assessing its overall effectiveness in reducing negative environmental impacts. The Scheme’s contribution to sustainable consumption and production will be assessed, and proposals will be made on how, through its revision, it should best meet the challenge of promoting sustainable development in Europe, as well as making it more attractive to economic operators and in particular to SMEs. This working plan should fully support the evaluation of the Scheme and its revision while not prejudicing in any way the possibility for making any changes to the Eco-label Scheme when the Regulation is revised. The fundamental aim of this revised working plan is, therefore, to build on the lessons and experience obtained from the functioning of the Eco-label scheme and lay down the programme of work for the next three years aiming at the following: Make the Community Eco-label a more successful and effective instrument for improving the environmental quality of goods and services. The revised working plan should also focus on supporting the currently on-going evaluation of the Eco-label Scheme and the upcoming revision of the Regulation. Continue the contribution to making consumption more sustainable, and to the policy objectives set out in the Community’s Sustainable Development Strategy and the Sixth Environmental Action Programme. Make the most effective use of the resources allocated to the scheme by the Commission, the Member States and the members of the European Union Eco-Labelling Board (EUEB). --- Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2006/402/annex/division/1 (the official version) Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2006-402/annex/division-1 Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.