Alongside the co-signatories of this Joint Statement, BIC recognises that, given that consumers can only make more sustainable choices if they have access to reliable, comparable, and verifiable information, it is therefore crucial to ensure that claims made by traders are backed by sufficient evidence while products deliver the environmental benefits that they claim to have. Indeed, the transition to a circular economy will not happen without the involvement of informed consumers.

Bearing this in mind, with the Commission proposing a Directive for the substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims, we reiterate that it should:

1. Ensure consistency of the Directive with relevant EU legislation while maintaining a level-playing field with imported products.
2. Ensure (information) requirements are strictly relevant to the substantiation and protect confidential information.
3. Clarify rules for the comparison of different product categories and further develop methods to calculate the life-cycle environmental impacts of products.
4. Ensure that existing, well-known third-party verified environmental certification schemes and labels are not facing obstacles in their verification.

The signatories of the Joint Statement are:

• Cepi – Confederation of European Paper Industries
• CITPA – International Confederation of Paper and Board Converters in Europe
• Copa-Cogeca – European farmers and European agri-cooperatives
• ECMA – European Carton Makers Association
• EFIC – European Furniture Industries Confederation
• ETS – European Tissue Symposium
• European Bioplastics
• FEFCO – European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers
• FEPE – Federation envelopes and for light and e-commerce packaging in Europe
• SMEunited – Crafts & SMEs in Europe
• ProCarton – European Association of Carton and Cartonboard manufacturers