The European Commission has announced its intention to cancel its proposal to ensure the accuracy, validity, and independent verification of companies' environmental statements.
This was announced by a spokesperson for the EU's central executive body, Euronews reports.
What was the proposal?
The draft law submitted by the EU executive was intended to protect consumers from deceptive environmental marketing practices. It required companies that want to use complex environmental marketing claims in Europe to submit these claims, along with supporting evidence, to nationally accredited verifiers in advance for evaluation and approval.
Green Deal winding down
The decision to withdraw the proposal was another blow to the key initiatives of the Green Deal. Other important measures have already been withdrawn or simplified. The European Commission cited concerns about the possible coverage of about 30 million microenterprises for which the new requirements could be too difficult and costly to meet.
“This step was the latest in a series of curtailments of major Green Deal initiatives after the so-called ‘omnibuses’ designed to simplify EU legislation actually narrowed the scope of measures such as the carbon import adjustment mechanism,” Euronews said.
This unexpected decision was announced on the eve of the final meeting between the Polish presidency of the EU Council and MEPs, which was expected to approve the proposal. Following this announcement, the Council of the European Union canceled the trilateral dialogue scheduled for June 23.
The decision of the European Commissioners caused surprise among the negotiators and raised the question of the authority of the European Commission to withdraw its own proposals, especially when there seem to be no sufficiently justified reasons for doing so, such as an institutional deadlock or the proposal's obsolescence.
How the process has progressed
The European Commission proposed the Green Claims Directive in March 2023 to make environmental marketing in Europe more credible. The Parliament adopted its position in the first reading on March 12, 2024, and the Council agreed on its position on June 17, 2024. Negotiations on the final text of the draft law began in January 2025 and were due to end on Monday, June 23, at a meeting that the Council officially canceled after an unexpected statement from the European Commission.
What is being said on the sidelines
According to parliamentary sources, the main negotiators – Socialist MP Delara Burkhardt and Liberal MP Sandro Gozi – still intended to continue the trilogue talks on Monday and indicated that they were nearing a successful conclusion.
“It is unacceptable that the European Commission is openly interfering with the progress made by the co-sponsors in this matter,” a member of the parliamentary negotiating group told Euronews.
He noted that the negotiating group considers the withdrawal a unilateral and premature step.
Likewise, Poland, which holds the EU Council presidency, “is ready to constructively engage in a trilateral dialogue and continue as planned until there is a clear decision by the European Commission [on withdrawal],” the Polish representative told Euronews.
Recently, EcoPolitic reported that in 2024, the EU's environmental budget became the largest in 10 years and exceeded defense spending.
