On Friday 20 June 2025 the European Commission announced its intention to withdraw its proposal for the EU Green Claims Directive just days prior to the commencement of trilogue negotiations aimed at its finalization.
In a statement from a spokesperson made on Friday 20 June 2025, it was announced that the European Commission intends to move forward and withdraw its proposal for an EU Green Claims Directive. A formal decision of withdrawal is yet to be issued by the European Commission.
The Directive was proposed by the European Commission on 22 March 2023. Read more about the proposal in our previous insights on the Green Claims Directive.
Following the adoption of a successful reading position by the European Parliament on 12 March 2024 and subsequent Council approval on 17 June 2024, it seemed that the way had been paved for the introduction of the new legislation.
The Green Claims Directive would introduce new requirements not already within the scope of EU legislation pertaining to, for instance, the use of environmental claims and eco-labeling schemes across the EU as well as rules on third-party verification, requiring Member States to establish national procedures for independent pre-approval of environmental claims or eco-labeling.
The Green Claims Directive has faced widespread criticism from Danish businesses and trade associations, amongs others who argue that the proposed regulation is overly radical. In particular, the requirement for third-party verification has been singled out as excessively burdensome.
At the moment, it is unclear whether the Directive will be formally repealed or not as a formal decision is yet to be issued by the European Commission. It is also unclear why the European Commission intends to withdraw the proposal, but it could be due to the criticism of the content of the Directive as well as the general criticism concerning the number of rules being introduced by the EU which increases complexity for businesses.
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