ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS IN PRODUCT STANDARDS - Short version

Ever since its foundation in 1991 the Consumer Council has given high priority to environmental issues in addition to those related to safety and fitness for purpose. Hence, the Consumer Council has been already involved in the early days of environmental discussion within the European standardisation organisation CEN and has strongly supported the consideration of environmental aspects in the standardisation of products.

Progress in this field is rather disappointing. As can be gathered from work commissioned by the Consumer Council, emission limits in European standards for heating appliances using oil, gas or solid fuels are lagging behind the state-of-the-art of technology.

European standards in the field of packaging and environment hardly contain substantial and verifiable requirements in line with interests of the packaging industry. Environmental and consumer organisations as well as authorities of several countries have heavily criticised these documents - and have been basically supported at least in part by the Commission.