Evropski ekonomsko-socialni odbor
COM(2022) 204 concerns the reform of the current EU rules on Distance Marketing of Consumer Financial Services, which govern financial services sold at a distance.
EESC believes that there is a need to have a clear and structured view of which funds are targeted to tackle climate change and how they are managed. With an approved budget of over EUR 330 billion in the current programming period, cohesion policy is the largest and most important investment tool in Europe. As 30% of both the Cohesion Fund and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) will need to be spent on projects for decarbonising our economy, cohesion policy has a crucial role in tackling climate change. Moreover, funds will also be made available under NGEU, as the green transition is one of the main targets of recovery and resilience after COVID-19.
The Commission's Legislative proposal on substantiating green claims will cover claims made on any of the environmental impacts covered by the Environmental Footprint methods and on claims on overall environmental performance. Environmental claims are any explicit environmental information on products / services or companies, including labels/ logos and text, in whichever form it is provided (e.g. website, brochure, on shelf, television, radio etc.).
Today it is indeed difficult for consumers, companies and other market actors to make sense of the many environmental labels and initiatives on the environmental performance of products and companies. There are more than 200 environmental labels active in the EU, and more than 450 active worldwide. Some of these methods and initiatives are reliable, some not; they are variable in the issues they cover.
The Sustainable Products Initiative (SPI) package aims to make every aspect of the design, production, use and sale of products placed on the EU market more environmentally-friendly and circular to deliver on the sustainability and climate objectives. The proposals of the package will introduce a new era where sustainable products become the norm as well as Europe's resource independence.