Updated: EU backs plans to grow green "flower" labelling scheme

The EU's " flower" eco-label could soon feature on a much wider range of products after the European Parliament yesterday voted in favour of new rules that would make it easier for products to carry the voluntary label.

More than 3,000 products such as detergents, paper and shoes already carry the label, but officials in Brussels are keen to see the certification scheme become more widely adopted. They have proposed rule changes that would make it less costly and bureaucratic for products to carry the label.

The resolution was adopted by the parliament with 633 votes in favour to 18 against.

However, it could take some time before new criteria for carrying the label are introduced. The proposed regulation sets general requirements for the development of the Ecolabel criteria for any goods or services, but the criteria themselves will not be determined by the regulation, but by subsequent decisions, for each product group.

A spokeswoman for the European Parliament explained that the new rules would be formally adopted by the member states within the next couple of months, but that the European Commission would then begin work alongside industry experts on developing new criteria for about 30 product categories covered by the scheme.

She added that once finalised, the criteria could be adopted immediately without the need for a further vote from parliament.

MEPs also set out a series of rules to ensure that in making it easier to qualify the label, its value as a signifier of green credentials is not diluted.

They insisted that no product that contains potentially harmful substances deemed to be of very high concern by the EC will be able to carry the label, while products that use animal testing are also unlikely to be able to display it.

The EC said that those products that do qualify for the label will have to meet demanding environmental performance criteria, "such as impact on climate change, energy and resource consumption and waste generation" .

MEPs also demanded that a new study be undertaken to determine whether the label can be applied to food products and if so whether it should be confined to organic products to avoid customer confusion.