What is it? Our purchasing decisions, which companies like to control by sticking green-colored leaves to their products and services. We know this method of manipulation not from now on.
We read on the packaging that something came about respecting the environment, but we are incapable to verify it. Neither does the manufacturer, and it doesn't truly have to, due to the fact that there's actually no law requiring him to do so.
The situation was to change the proposal to organise European law, the Green Claims Directive, which the European Commission has been working on since 2023, just to throw it in the trash. The aim was to require companies to supply verifiable evidence of the environmental or climate neutrality of their offers and to harmonise regulations, certificates and indications in this respect. At the moment, the EU states that more than half of the "green" products on the marketplace have unclear or misleading labels and 40% usage completely unconfirmed labels.
Let us agree – this is not a peculiarly ambitious, groundbreaking or controversial plan for the environment and climate. However, since the EC is teaching it, it is hard to anticipate any another action to have a chance of success. Rather, we see evidence of the success of the increased efforts of the European centre-right and lobbyists of the large business, which have been torpedoing everything that is connected to the Green Deal for months.
As a substance of fact, the Green Claims belong to this package and are just a drop in the sea of large indulgence or simply – like She wrote in our pages Victoria Jędroszkowiak – an always little silent dismantling of key regulations of the European agreement.
It was not long ago that the deregulation Omnibus was excited to simplify the principles of corporate work and to study on sustainable improvement in the European Union, and it truly depletes them in favour of the companies and their capitalists in the ranks of European political forces.
The Green Claims Directive collapsed 2 days after the project's deletion was requested in a letter sent to the EC by the European People's Party. It was argued that in terms of the number of administrative activities, the rules would hit micro-entrepreneurs disproportionately more than large players. Then there was a series of unfortunate events.
"The Commission has seemingly capitulated without a fight, fueling the increasing feeling among the left-wing centre block that the EPP controls not only Parliament but besides the Commission", says the James Fernuyhough article from Politicoa reaction to reports that the body managed by Ursula Von Der Leyen will retreat from the project.
European political groups in favour of implementation Green Deal expressed outrage at that decision. The EC spokesperson then stated that no 1 intended to retreat anything, and the burden of the full heated discussion was being put on the details of the records.
The Commission's representatives, most likely to put out the fire, argued to the public that it was not about dropping the full project, but about removing the obligations of the smallest players on the market, i.e. companies employing up to 10 people requested by the EPP. This was to happen already during the negotiations. As a consequence of the communication chaos, their consequence for anyone from the outside is not clear. However, it can show the leaks and imperfections of the full legislative process. It proves that any letter from the right can origin confusion in the EC.
Perhaps the problem is due, in fact, to the mistake of the EC spokesman, who has resigned from Green Claims to the public. 1 thing we know for certain is that the effects of all the confusion work in the interests of all those who want greenwashing to be at least as good in EU countries as it has been so far.
