EU: Green Claims Directive at stake

The Green Claims Directive that aims to prevent greenwashing and protect consumers from misleading environmental marketing practices on EU-wide level is at stake after the Council cancelled the trilogue. The European Commission proposed the Green Claims Directive in March 2023 to make environmental marketing more reliable in Europe. Products that are labelled as “sustainable”, “recyclable” or “climate neutral” and advertised with claims such as “packaging made from 30 percent recycled plastic” or “halving the CO2 emissions” are often misleading, unfounded or unsubstantiated.

According to the Green Claims Directive draft, companies must base voluntary environmental claims to consumers on scientific evidence. This includes claims about goods, services or the company itself that claim positive environmental impacts and that are not currently covered by other EU regulations. Environmental claims must also be verified by an independent and accredited verification body before publication.

Green claims based solely on carbon offsetting schemes will remain banned. Companies could, however, mention offsetting and carbon removal schemes in their ads if they have already reduced their emissions as much as possible and use these schemes for residual emissions only. The draft directive also contains rules on eco labels to ensure that they are reliable.

Parliament adopted its first reading position on the file on March 12, 2024 and the Council agreed its position on June 17, 2024. Negotiations on the final text of the draft law started in January 2025 and were expected to come to a conclusion on Monday June 23. The Council decided to cancel talks with Parliament after the European Commission had announced that it intends to withdraw the legislative proposal. This announcement was made due to a letter the environment Commissioner Jessika Roswal received from the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) in which the EU executive was asked to withdraw its proposal.

“Less than three hours before the start of the final trilogue, we learned of the Presidency’s unwillingness to engage in negotiations with the Parliament and the Commission, because of the Commission’s recent announcements and the change of positions within the Council itself”, commented Anna Cavazzini (Greens/EFA, DE), Chair of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and Antonio Decaro (S&D, IT), Chair of the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety.

“This modus operandi could set a dangerous precedent for the legislative process and institutional procedures, leading to unnecessary and avoidable confrontation among co-legislators. We do not believe it is fair to deprive Parliament of the opportunity to finalize the negotiations on a directive after two years of legislative process and countless hours of work.

As Chairs of the responsible committees at the European Parliament, they want to continue negotiations as soon as possible by resuming the institutional dialogue. “We hopefully agreeing on an important directive that serves to build environmental awareness and consumer trust by making environmental marketing claims more reliable and verifiable. What’s more, fighting greenwashing would create a more level playing field for businesses that already work sustainably.”

Photo/Video: © European Union 2025 – Source : EP