Brussels – Two fundamental games are being played on the withdrawal of the European directive on environmental declarations, which aims to combat corporate greenwashing: on the one hand, it risks being the point of no return of the very fragile ‘platform’ supporting Ursula von der Leyen—made up of Popular, Socialists and Liberals—and on the other, it undermines the credibility of the legislative process and the trust between the European institutions themselves.
This morning (23 June), the potentially decisive meeting between the negotiators of the European Parliament and the EU Council was scheduled to take place in order to fine-tune the final draft of the directive, proposed by the European Commission in March 2023. But the surprise announcement last Friday (20 June) by government spokespeople that they wanted to withdraw the proposal just a few metres from the finish line triggered an earthquake. The Polish rotating presidency of the EU Council cancelled the meeting: “There are too many doubts and confusion about the dossier. We have decided to suspend the work. Quality is more important than speed,” Warsaw announced.
In the meantime, Brussels has provided the first official explanations. The problem would be that the negotiating position the co-legislators are arriving at is too far removed from the original proposal put on the table by the Commission. “There have been developments, including an amendment that clearly goes against the simplification objective of the Commission. In particular, with regard to micro-enterprises,” explained Paula Pinho, chief spokesperson for the executive, emphasising that the amendment would place burdens “on some 30 million micro-enterprises, 96 per cent of all enterprises”.
The amendment in question, inserted by the Member States, “distorts the Commission’s proposal, preventing the achievement of the objectives that the proposal had set itself from the outset, i.e. supporting the development of green markets without imposing burdens on smaller companies“, continued the spokeswoman. The withdrawal of the proposal, a prerogative of the Commission provided for in the treaties, thus becomes a weapon to influence the negotiations: “We will wait and see at the next inter-institutional meeting whether this amendment, which goes completely against the simplification agenda, will be maintained or not. If it is not maintained, then we can reconsider our proposal for withdrawal,” Pinho concluded.
The question is actually whether the next interinstitutional meeting will ever take place. And how the EU Council will, eventually, get there. Because over the weekend, Italy took advantage of the Commission’s stance and withdrew its support for the Polish presidency of the EU Council during the negotiations. “This is a proposal that Italy has never supported,” diplomatic sources confirmed. Moreover, at the time of the approval of the Council’s general approach in June 2024, Italy had given its assent. The Italian turnaround could force the member states to reopen the text, find a new compromise and start negotiations with Parliament all over again. Besides the micro-enterprise and simplification knots, some delegations had raised doubts about the validity of the method identified by the European Commission to assess the sustainability of products, the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR).
Press conference by Timo Volken (S&D) and Sandro Gozi (Renew) on the withdrawal of the Green Claims Directive
In the EU Parliament, socialists and liberals are furious about an ‘unprecedented’ move by the European Commission, and the betrayal committed by the European People’s Party, which “decided to ally itself with the extreme right” in the crusade against the Green Deal. In fact, the decision of the European Commission, with popular traction, came only two days after the EPP, Conservatives (ECR) and Patriots (PfE) explicitly demanded the withdrawal of the proposal. “We had the impression that the Commission was following the instructions of the three political groups,” was the conclusion drawn by Sandro Gozi, Liberal MEP from Renew and rapporteur of the measure for the EU Parliament. “The Berlaymont (seat of the European Commission, ed) looks more and more like the headquarters of the EPP,” attacked Social Democrat Timo Wolken.
Gozi pointed out that the trialogue on the agenda today was supposed to address precisely the issue of micro-enterprises and that, “guess what, in the European Parliament’s mandate, micro-enterprises are exempted from the scope of the directive.” A ‘false excuse’ in short, that of Ursula von der Leyen and the Commissioner for the Environment, Jessika Roswall, both from the People’s Party, to cover up what is in reality a political line of their party. “We will raise the issue with the President of the European Parliament,” Gozi announced. According to the chairmen of the Internal Market and Environment Committee of the European Parliament, Anna Cavazzini (Greens) and the Dem Antonio Decaro, “this modus operandi could establish a dangerous precedent for the legislative process and institutional procedures, leading to unnecessary and avoidable clashes between the co-legislators.”
The matter is now in danger of entering a stalemate. The European Commission has said that it wants to wait for the next trialogue, while the EU Council presidency—responsible for convening the meetings—is asking for clarity: “As far as the next steps are concerned, we don’t have a clear idea yet, so we will stay in touch with the European Parliament and the European Commission to assess possible actions.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
