Brussels,12th March 2024
The Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI) welcomes the European Parliament’s adoption of the ENVI/IMCO Committees joint position on the Green Claims’ Directive proposal. Once in place, and provided that co-legislators step up the harmonisation of some administrative procedures, this Directive could constitute an important tool to fight against greenwashing, bolstering consumer trust and advancing sustainability efforts across the European Union.
“Today’s vote is an important step forward in ensuring that environmental claims are transparent, credible, and substantiated. As representatives of responsible sporting goods brands and retailers, we support these efforts to combat greenwashing and promote responsible environmental standards for products sold across the EU. However, we call on the co-legislators involved to ensure transparent and harmonised verification procedures that support companies in progressing towards sustainability, without adding excessive administrative burden to the process and hampering innovations” commented Jérôme Pero, FESI Secretary General.
FESI welcomes the Parliament’s proposal empowering the European Commission to adopt delegated acts to introduce restrictions or prohibitions on the use of explicit environmental claims for products containing substances of concern based on outcomes of a report. Implementing such measures will help safeguard consumers against misleading claims and contribute to the protection of human health and the environment.
Moreover, FESI welcomes the fact that MEPs decided to exclude from the scope of the Directive environmental labelling schemes and explicit environmental claims regulated by the rules established in the Textile Labelling Regulation. However, we regret the decision to remove references to the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which from our perspective will create additional legal uncertainty.
Furthermore, FESI fully supports the European Parliament’s compromise proposal, which empowers the European Commission to establish, through secondary legislation, simplified or shortened procedures and a presumption of conformity for certain environmental claims. The introduction of the deadline of 30 days for verifiers to complete the certification process, will also help streamline the whole process and provide companies with much-needed certainty and transparency. While we celebrate this positive development, we do regret lack of full harmonisation of the procedures, costs and transition periods as well as lack of independent review panel. This measure will allow legitimate businesses to challenge decisions where a certificate of conformity is denied, ensuring fairness and accountability within the certification process.
As we move forward, FESI remains committed to collaborating with policymakers, stakeholders, and industry partners to drive meaningful change and advance sustainability within the sporting goods sector. We look forward to the Council’s future position on this draft Directive and hope to see our legitimate concerns be addressed as part of the upcoming trilogues.
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About FESI: Founded in 1960 FESI, the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry, is the unique pre-competitive platform representing the interests of the sporting goods industry in Europe, advancing its members’ priorities and promoting initiatives that benefit the sector, EU citizens and the society as a whole. FESI represents the interests of approximately 1.800 sporting goods manufacturers (85% of the European market) through its National Sporting Goods Industry Federations and its directly affiliated member companies. 70-75% of FESI’s membership is made up of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. In total, the European Sporting Goods Industry employs over 700.000 EU citizens and has an annual turnover of some 81 billion euro.
Media contact: Ariane Gatti – FESI Communication & Policy Manager / [email protected] / +32 (0) 2 762 86 48
