CURRENT AFFAIRS: Withdrawal of Green Claims Directive

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Withdrawal of the Green Claims Directive: more environmental backsliding?

The Green Claims Directive, withdrawn by the European Commission on 20 June 2025, had been proposed by the Commission on 22 March 2023.  The European Economic and Social Committee had adopted its opinion on the proposal on 14 June of the same year (INT/969), and then on 12 March 2024 the Commission proposal had been adopted by an overwhelming majority in the European Parliament.

There were many reasons behind the Commission’s decision to withdraw the Directive: its requirements had been deemed too burdensome; methods for calculating environmental footprint were disputed; and 90% of European companies found its scope too broad. All these concerns are understandable.

Nevertheless, greenwashing remains a problem, and an ambitious campaign against it must be pursued. Greenwashing is a practice that breaches consumer trust by misrepresenting the environmental credentials of products, and disincentivises businesses engaged in valid decarbonisation measures, who then face competition from companies making false environmental claims. It also creates confusion among the public as to what really needs to be done to implement the green transition in order to bring about a cleaner, healthier, climate-neutral Europe.

All is not lost, however. A Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition, on which I wrote as EESC rapporteur (INT/968), has now come into force (Official Journal of 6 March 2024). This new Directive paves the way for a better framework to govern environmental claims. All Member States must adopt the measures necessary for implementing this Directive by 27 March 2026.

The fight against climate change is too important for misleading claims to go unchallenged. The subject needs to be re-examined in greater depth.

Thierry LIBAERT (France)
Member, Civil Society Organisations’ Group
Vice-president, Scientific Council, French civil society organisation “Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme” (FNH)

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