EU Green Claims Directive proposal status FAQ

The Green Claims Directive is grounded as Commission proposal COM(2023) 166 for a directive on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims. The proposal was published on 22 March 2023 and is tracked under ordinary legislative procedure 2023/0085(COD).

Do not describe this file as an adopted final Green Claims Directive or attach final transposition and application deadlines unless a later final act is added to the grounding sources. The grounded procedure records show legislative progress, not completion.

The European Parliament adopted its first-reading position on the Green Claims Directive proposal on 12 March 2024. That is a legislative milestone, not the adoption of the final directive.

For public copy, say that Parliament adopted a first-reading position, or that the text was adopted by Parliament at first reading. Avoid wording that makes the Parliament vote sound like the completed EU act.

The Council approved a general approach for the Green Claims Directive at the Environment Council meeting on 17 June 2024. The Council document is a negotiating position showing changes against the Commission proposal.

A Council general approach is not the same thing as the adopted final directive. It is useful for monitoring likely negotiation direction, but it should not be used to publish final legal deadlines.

Directive (EU) 2024/825 is already adopted and related, but it is not the Green Claims Directive proposal itself. The Council general approach describes the Green Claims proposal as complementing Directive (EU) 2024/825 by adding specific rules for explicit environmental claims, environmental labelling schemes, substantiation, communication, and verification.

For status language, separate the two instruments: Directive (EU) 2024/825 is an adopted consumer-law amendment, while the Green Claims Directive remains the proposal tracked under 2023/0085(COD) in the grounded procedure sources.

Avoid saying that the Green Claims Directive has final adopted deadlines, final transposition dates, or a final application date when those facts are not present in the grounding set. Draft and Council texts may contain bracketed timing markers or proposal-stage timing, but those are not final-act deadlines.

Also avoid ungrounded withdrawal claims. The grounded OEIL and EUR-Lex procedure records used here show the procedure status and institutional steps; they do not support saying that the proposal was withdrawn.