Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-02-Speech-4-018"
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"en.20090402.6.4-018"2
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"Mr President, there are different tools to sanction environment-conscious behaviour in our societies. There are regulations, directives, resolutions. We can forbid certain materials and activities. We can have a ban on dangerous substances and subsidise green technology.
The main rule is that Ecolabelled products must not contain dangerous substances, but there can be some very few exceptions. Specific goods which do not have equivalent alternatives, and which have a higher overall environmental performance compared with other goods of the same category, may get exceptions. The best and most well-known example is the energy-saving light bulb, which has many environmental advantages but contains mercury.
The issue of foodstuffs has also been widely debated. In this case the criteria should be further developed. The Ecolabel has a real added environmental value. It considers the whole life cycle of the product, and the use of the Ecolabel should not cause confusion in the minds of consumers when compared with other food labels. The Commission shall adopt measures to establish specific Ecolabel criteria for each product group, including foodstuffs. Not later than three months after the final report and the draft criteria, the Commission shall consult the European Union Ecolabel board on a draft proposal on this issue.
As I have already said, the Ecolabel shall be based on environmental performance throughout the life cycle of the best products on the internal market. That is why the report allows for setting the ambition level of Ecolabel criteria on a case-by-case basis between 10% and 20% of the best performing products on the market, thus ensuring that the scheme rewards only the most environmentally friendly products but offers sufficient choice to consumers.
But in a market economy there are other tools as well. We can target consumers through the products they buy, recommending those products which are environmentally friendly and fit the requirement of sustainable development.
This directive takes an important step in the right direction by simplifying the passage toward getting the Ecolabel. The Socialist Group supports the report. My comrades and I have tabled many amendments to it, and those amendments are either favoured by the Committee on the Environment or their spirit is built into the compromise package. So our group will vote in favour of the report at the final vote today.
We think that the environmental effect of products must be a very important issue in the EU, and the whole idea of an Ecolabel gives a very useful orientation for consumers.
Of course the Ecolabel should be given to the most environmentally friendly products, and the information should be clear and correct. In these hard times of the economic crisis, we should respect the interests of producers as well, and I am sure that this report balances the interests of the consumers and industry.
It is very important to involve small and medium-sized enterprises in the Ecolabel process and, therefore, the cost of the authorisation cannot be too high. I, as a shadow rapporteur of the Socialist Group, pushed the report in the direction of even lower costs, and I thank the rapporteur for accepting our arguments.
For the SMEs I mentioned, it is obvious that we should have to abolish the bureaucratic difficulty of the authorisation. We have to simplify the procedure for getting the Ecolabel because, in its present form, the decision procedure is very slow and bureaucratic.
Mostly the smaller enterprises do not have enough money, time and energy for the slow process of getting an Ecolabel. It is very important to analyse the whole life cycle of a product, from production to destruction. It is not enough to judge the environmental characteristics of the ready-made product; the substances of the product, the process of production, the transport of the goods and the method for its destruction or decomposition should also be studied before an Ecolabel is given.
It is obvious, at least to us Socialists, that the products which have gained an Ecolabel must not contain dangerous substances. It was a very difficult question during our debates, but finally we were able to reach a very good compromise about dangerous substances."@en1
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