Division (a) Co-ordination of product group development

The Community Eco-label and the other labels should systematically exchange information on their existing product groups and on their programmes for product group development, and should where appropriate co-ordinate their efforts, pooling resources, expertise, and results. This would lead to mutual savings, clarification of the respective roles of the different schemes, and facilitate harmonisation (in cases where similar labels have similar objectives). All the bodies involved should work to develop their thinking on how the Community Eco-label and other labels can best interact in the long term in light of the upcoming revision of the Community Eco-label Regulation.

During the previous working plan this has been done (for example with the ‘Nordic Swan’ and the ‘Stichting Milieukeur’) but co-operation has not been systematic and more effort is necessary to reach a threshold level of harmonisation. The co-ordination efforts between the Community Eco-label and the national schemes will now focus in the areas of product group development prioritisation, convergence, awareness raising with respect to specific needs and conditions at a national level – all in relation to providing input for the revision of the Eco-label Regulation.

In order to make the process of co-ordination clearer and more systematic, the position of the Member States on the strategy regarding the relevant national schemes should be made explicit at the beginning of the development or revision of the product group. In particular, when Community Eco-label criteria already exist for a product group and the Member State independently decides to develop new criteria for its national label, the reasoning behind the criteria development work and the specific national conditions that make it necessary should be discussed at the EUEB.

Objective

Progressively enhance co-ordination of product group development in the different labelling schemes in the EU, specifically in light of the revision of the Eco-label scheme.

Actions

The EUEB should encourage co-operation with the national labels in Member States in order to review and catalogue all product groups covered by Eco-labels in the EU and continue the work on establishing and updating a central register of these product groups and their criteria. This work should be used to consider how the revision of the Community Eco-label Regulation can contribute of the better co-ordination with national and international labels.

The EUEB and the other labels in the Member States should progressively co-ordinate their work programmes and systematically exchange information.

The EUEB should take into account relevant work being carried out with the Global Eco-labelling Network (GEN), again, in light of the revision of the Eco-label scheme.