mr president we have been waiting quite a long time for the commission's plan on sustainable production and consumption
we received the proposal a few months ago
although it is comprehensive unfortunately i have to say that the overall content is rather limited and poor
having read some of the early drafts of the commission proposals i know that in the environment dg in particular there were much more ambitious plans to start with
so it is obvious that work on these issues has to continue and be more in-depth in the future
today we are discussing the ecolabel scheme
the revision offers a good opportunity for this label to move away from the margins of the market to capture a much larger share of the market and to help push demand for eco-friendly products
the new rules represent a significant improvement
they are more dynamic will apply a life-cycle approach and should be able to attract significantly more attention and interest among both companies and consumers
as mr dimas said they will be able to help consolidate eco-labelling and do away with a number of voluntary schemes that are very often confusing to consumers
however we still have a problem namely how to inform consumers and the markets about the label
marketing support for this label has been very limited in the past
the resources allocated have been minuscule compared to the resources behind a lot of branding in the market in general
i hope this will change first of all by businesses seeing the ecolabel as an important instrument in the future
i also hope as mr vakalis said that public procurement will in the future expand in green areas and use the ecolabel as a platform
i also hope that the commission will be more proactive in its support for the scheme
i thank all those who have been involved in the work
i think we have done quite a good job in a few weeks
we managed to clear up some of the confusion around food products in particular fishery products in the final hours
finally i would like to refer back to ms mcavan who made a reference to the financial crisis and the meeting in london today
i think that reference is very relevant
we are facing at least three parallel crises today the financial crisis the climate crisis and what i would call the ecosystem crisis or overuse of natural resources
it is only by tackling the root causes together that is to say unsustainable use of resources through investing in low-carbon and eco-friendly production and products that we will be able to build a better future
i think this ecolabel scheme is one of many instruments that can help us to do that
