The Commission’s laconic announcement came on June 20 from spokesman Maciej Berestecki, who said: “In the current context, indeed the Commission intends to withdraw the Green claims proposal.”
The European Commission has gone back on two years of work and withdrawn its Green Claims Directive – intended to counter the “vague, misleading or unfounded” nature of half of the green claims out there on the market, as determined by a study conducted in 2020 and cited by the Commission.
The Commission’s laconic announcement came on June 20 from spokesman Maciej Berestecki, who said: “In the current context, indeed the Commission intends to withdraw the Green claims proposal.”
Just days earlier, on June 17, the Council was announcing its readiness to “start talks with” Parliament and quoted Alain Maron, Minister of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region: “Today, we reached an important agreement to fight greenwashing by setting rules on clear, sufficient and evidence-based information on the environmental characteristics of products and services. Our aim is to help European citizens make well-founded green choices.” The “general approach” behind that agreement is available for perusal online.
An unidentified MEP gave Euronews a reaction to the directive’s withdrawal, saying: “It is unacceptable that the Commission blatantly interferes with the progress made by co-legislators on this file.” A Polish spokesman told the same outlet that the Polish presidency was “ready to enter constructively into the trilogue and go ahead as planned until there is a clear decision from the Commission [on the withdrawal].” The Council canceled that trilogue on June 23.
