Each Member State of the European Union must fully apply EU law. The body responsible for identifying possible violations of EU law is the European Commission. Where a Member State does not apply EU law and breaches its obligations under the EU Treaties, the European Commission may open a formal infringement procedure under Articles 258 and 260 TFEU (see details on the infringement procedure here).
Regulation 66/2010 establishes a voluntary eco-label award scheme with the aim of promoting products that have a lower environmental impact and providing consumers with accurate, non-misleading and scientifically based information on the environmental impact of products. It obliges each participating Member State to establish a competent body to award the EU Ecolabel to products that meet the relevant award criteria. According to the January infringements package, the Greek competent body has not been operational since 2020 and therefore cannot process any applications from companies. This means that Greek companies cannot obtain eco-labels for their products before exporting them to other Member States, thus distorting competition with other European companies. Furthermore, this means that there is no market surveillance for Greek products with an EU Ecolabel already on the market. Although the Greek authorities have acknowledged the problem, they have not solved it so far and therefore the Commission has decided to send a letter of formal notice to Greece.
More information on this procedure can be found on the European Commission’s website by entering INFR(2022)2110 in the “Infringement number” field.
The application of EU law is an obligation of the Member States of the European Union. If infringements of EU law are identified, the European Commission may take a series of actions against the Member State concerned to ensure the correct and full application of EU law by opening infringement proceedings under Articles 258 and 260 TFEU.
In this particular case, the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Greece, due to the failure of the country to provide the functioning body provided for in the EU Ecolabel Regulation, calling on the country to give Greek companies the opportunity to obtain the EU Ecolabel and to ensure market surveillance.
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