Division 1 Policy and strategy towards the revision of the Eco-label Regulation

The Community Eco-label is continually developing and adapting its long-term policy and strategy. It needs to be closely integrated with the ongoing discussions and the work for the implementation of the EU Integrated Product Policy Communication and also with other legislative instruments under development, such as the proposed directive on the Eco-design of Energy-using Products (EuP), the 92/75/EEC Framework Directive for domestic appliances and the Energy Star Council Decision for office equipment, the implementation of ETAP, the Sixth Environmental Action Programme and Community’s Sustainable Development Strategy. The Community Eco-label also needs to follow closely the wider developments in product eco-labelling, as well as ethical, quality and health labels, by also ensuring an appropriate involvement of the different scientific committees in order to further improve the scientific basis of the ecological criteria. Equally important are the developments in the field of Environmental Management Systems, in particular with respect to the Community Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).

In order to manage more effectively the various related discussions and information flows, both within the Scheme and with respect to external forums, and to prepare and lead the debate on the future of the Scheme, an active Policy Management Group was set up in the first Eco-label working plan. It has delivered a very valuable contribution to the future policy and strategy of the Scheme, by addressing the issues of integration with other environmental policies, synergies with other information instruments and a wide range of long term policy issues. It has clearly identified the main challenges that the Scheme is facing at the moment and has contributed to the discussion by developing a variety of ideas about the evaluation and the revision of the Scheme. These ideas should be fed into the discussions on the revision of the Scheme where meetings involving stakeholders should be considered a priority.

Objective

It should be a priority of the EUEB, Member States and the Commission to develop and adapt the long-term policy and strategy of the Eco-label Scheme in the light of the upcoming revision of the Regulation. They should also contribute to the integration of the Eco-label in the various policy developments taking place in relation to sustainable consumption (such as IPP, EuP, Green Public Procurement, wider labelling, reduced taxation for green products, ETAP, etc.).

Actions

The EUEB, Member States and the Commission should make it a priority to input into the evaluation and revision of the Eco-label Scheme in order to help develop and adapt its long-term policy and strategy. This input should come in the form of dedicated meetings, investigations and mobilisation of expertise following the publication of the results of the study.