Procedure completed
Role | Committee | Rapporteur | Shadows |
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Lead | ENVI | WIJKMAN Anders (PPE-DE) | |
Opinion | ITRE |
Legal Basis RoP 052
Activites
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2004/04/21
Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
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T5-0349/2004
summary
The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report drafted by Anders WIJKMAN (EPP-ED, S) welcoming the IPP communication but regretting that it provides only limited guidance on how to move society in the direction of truly sustainable systems of product development and design. It called on the Commission to present a framework directive for IPP based on a set of clearly defined principles and objectives. The objective is not to present detailed requirements for product design but to establish framework conditions aimed at facilitating business practices which should be built on systems thinking, giving priority to resource efficiency and should be structured progressively along biological lines. Parliament suggested that the main principles guiding the IPP framework have to be based on: - a systems-based approach, where life-cycle thinking is at the core and primary attention is given to product design, - an enhanced understanding of how natural systems work and of how structuring business along biological lines can both improve the environment and establish the bottom line, - ensuring that products whose useful life is over should ideally not become useless waste but be separated and reconditioned to become inputs for new production cycles, - an enhanced understanding of how consumption patterns are formed and how they can be changed to contribute to sustainable development, - optimisation of the product design process, by the selection of low-impact materials, - giving preference to bio-based materials; moreover, hazardous substances, including many heavy metals, should not be allowed systematically to increase in concentration in the biosphere; furthermore, chemicals should be used in a non-dissipatory way; safety of chemicals should be assessed through a science-based hazard and/or risk-approach. Priority should be given, however, to the substitution principle, meaning that hazardous substances including many heavy metals should preferably be replaced by more benign ones or safeguarded through tightly controlled closed-loop recycling, - optimisation of production techniques, by giving preference to the clustering of production by encouraging reuse and recycling of materials, in particular by developing techniques for the separation and reconditioning of used products and materials to become input for new production cycles, - reduction of impact during use, - making full use of the potential offered by ICT to promote miniaturisation and dematerialisation, enhancing energy and material efficiency and reducing transport demand by turning products into sustainable services, - maximum involvement of stakeholders. The short-term objectives for the IPP framework should be focused on reductions in emissions of greenhouse, acidifying gases and air pollutants, reductions in energy intensity, reductions in the use of hazardous substances, reductions in the intensity of virgin material resource use, water use and waste production and increase in renewable material use. Without the creation of such a framework, the necessary signals and incentives are not put across to designers and decision makers. Parliament called on the Commission to give priority to the following actions: - develop the necessary legal and economic framework conditions, objectives and incentives to make IPP a reality, - identifying key R&D areas and pilot projects, - developing and implementing effective information tools at consumer level (product registers, eco-labels and/or comparable tools); presenting a strategy on how different information instruments can be developed and co-ordinated in order to improve the information flow in the whole product chain, - developing education and awareness-raising programmes in society at large, giving special attention to certain target groups, - integrating IPP and life-cycle thinking in all major EU policy areas, - drawing up a plan for co-ordinating IPP with other on-going processes such as relevant thematic strategies, the follow-up to Johannesburg, Chemical Strategies, Climate action plan etc. Finally, Parliament insisted that, to promote the consumption of environmentally friendly products, the Commission should encourage Member States to consider various incentives, such as reduced taxes and rebates.�
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T5-0349/2004
summary
- 2004/04/19 Debate in Parliament
- 2004/04/06 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
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2003/12/18
Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
- #2536
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2003/10/27
Council Meeting
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2003/06/18
Non-legislative basic document published
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COM(2003)0302
summary
PURPOSE : to present a Communication on integrated product policy (IPP). CONTENT : the European Commission has adopted a Communication on Integrated Product Policy (IPP), outlining its strategy for reducing the environmental impact caused by products. The Commission will take a number of actions to stimulate continuous improvement in the environmental performance of products throughout their whole life-cycle. The Commission will also initiate work towards identifying those products with the greatest potential for environmental improvement, working with industry, business and consumers to green those products. The IPP Communication builds on the stakeholder consultation exercise following adoption of the Commission Green Paper on IPP in February 2001. Existing environmental product-related policies have tended to focus on large point sources of pollution, such as industrial emissions and waste management issues, rather than the products themselves and how they contribute to environmental degradation at other points in their life cycles. Measures have also tended to look at the chosen phases in isolation. The IPP approach, which has been developed gradually over the last decade, is now generally recognised as being a potentially very effective way to address the environmental dimension of products. This approach is based on five key principles: 1) Life-Cycle Thinking - it considers a product's life-cycle and aims for a reduction of its cumulative environmental impacts - from the "cradle to the grave". In so doing it also aims to prevent individual parts of the life-cycle from being addressed in a way that just results in the environmental burden being shifted to another part. By looking at the whole of a product's life-cycle in an integrated way, IPP also promotes policy coherence. It encourages measures to reduce environmental impacts at the point in the life-cycle where they are likely to be most effective in reducing environmental impact and saving costs for business and society. 2) Working with the market - setting incentives so that the market moves in a more sustainable direction by encouraging the supply and demand of greener products. This will reward those companies that are innovative, forward-thinking and committed to sustainable development. 3) Stakeholder Involvement - it aims to encourage all those who come into contact with the product (i.e. industry, consumers and government) to act on their sphere of influence and to encourage co-operation between the different stakeholders. Industry can look at how to better integrate environmental aspects in the design of products while consumers can assess how they can purchase greener products and how they can better use and dispose of them. Governments can set the economic and legal framework conditions for entire national economies and also act directly on markets, for instance by purchasing greener products. 4) Continuous Improvement - improvements can often be made to decrease a product's environmental impacts across its life-cycle, whether in design, manufacture, use or disposal, taking into account the parameters set by the market. IPP aims for a continuous improvement in these rather than setting a precise threshold to be attained. As a result, companies can settheir own pace and can focus on the most cost efficient improvements. 5) A Variety of Policy Instruments - the IPP approach requires a number of different instruments because there are such a variety of products available and different stakeholders involved. These instruments range from voluntary initiatives to regulations and from the local to the international scale. Within IPP, the tendency is clearly to work with voluntary approaches, although mandatory measures might also be required. The determining factor is the effectiveness of the tool to achieve the desired result with regard to sustainable development. The Communication sets out what the Commission will do to implement IPP. It will adopt a two-pronged approach: - Improving the tools that already exist to make them more product-focused. These tools, known as the IPP toolbox, can be used on many different products. They include environmental management systems (such as the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme EMAS), environmental labelling and the provision of life-cycle information. IPP will also improve co-ordination between the different instruments to better exploit their synergies. - Taking action to improve the environmental performance of products that have the greatest potential for environmental improvement. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS : - Budget line : B4-3040 A; - Total allocation for action (Part B): EUR 1.605 million for commitment; - Period of application: 2003 - 2007.�
- DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/environment/', 'title': 'Environment'}],
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COM(2003)0302
summary
Documents
- Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2003)0302
- Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A5-0261/2004
- Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
- Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0349/2004
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