Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-02-Speech-4-015"
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"Mr President, I should like to start by thanking and congratulating the rapporteurs, Mrs McAvan and Mr Tatarella, on their excellent reports on the proposed review of the Community Ecolabel and eco-management and audit scheme.
My thanks once again to the rapporteurs for their excellent work.
These are two important environmental policy measures which form an integral part of the action plan on sustainable consumption and production. It is positive that agreement can be reached at first reading. The members of the European Parliament have made a decisive contribution and we have managed to keep the environmental objective of the Commission proposal intact, while setting more ambitious targets on numerous important points.
The fact that agreement has been reached at first reading confirms the will of the institutions to deal directly with the problems created by unsustainable consumption and production. The review of the eco-management and audit scheme (ΕΜΑS) gives organisations and companies throughout the world the ability to manage the environmental impact of their activities more effectively. The ΕΜΑS contributes towards constant improvements in the environmental performance of organisations and companies, including of course compliance with the relevant environmental legislation. It also offers organisations and companies additional benefits, not only by directly saving money, but also by limiting bureaucratic procedures when filing reports and allowing the competent authorities in the Member States to grant incentives.
With the revised system, we shall be in a position to address consumers' increasing demand for objective, impartial and reliable information on the environmental impact of the products which they buy. The revised system will give us the potential to increase the variety of Ecolabel products on the market and to encourage companies to improve their environmental performance. Moreover, the Ecolabel logo will give them numerous competitive advantages, such as lower duties, stricter environmental standards, the exclusion of hazardous substances and simpler criteria linked to public procurement and other European Union policies.
The scope of the revised Ecolabel regulation has also been extended. The regulation is more flexible and able to meet the new environmental challenges and priorities. Given that it is a framework legislative act, the Ecolabel regulation does not set specific criteria for products. Instead, it makes provision for environmental criteria to be set for selected categories of products, so that the logo can be awarded to the best products in each category.
Today, there is extremely broad penetration on the market of environmental labels, images and texts which may be confusing to consumers, from pictures of forests on tins containing hazardous substances to claims for foods with a neutral carbon footprint and even ecological cars. Consumers therefore have no idea whom to trust. The compromise proposal for a regulation on the Ecolabel will help to remove these doubts.
Before laying down criteria and categories of products for food and drink, a study will be carried out into the added value which the label may provide. Once this study has been carried out and the Commission has issued a decision through the codecision procedure, the Ecolabel logo can be awarded to products with the best environmental performance.
I trust that Parliament will fully support this positive bundle of proposals. The Ecolabel is one of the few channels for real and direct communication between citizens and the European Union on environmental issues. Thanks to the Ecolabel, citizens will make better product choices and, by extension, will participate directly and actively in combating unsustainable consumption.
The European Commission is in a position to accept the compromise bundles of proposals in their entirety, in order to reach agreement at first reading on both regulations."@en1
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