WRITTEN QUESTION E-2571/02

by Margie Sudre (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(16 September 2002)

Subject: Future of tourism ecolabels in Europe

The Foundation for Environmental Education in Europe (FEEE) was set up twenty years ago on the initiative of experts from the Council of Europe. It instigated and now manages the Blue Flag campaign, which today covers 24 countries.

Over the past four years the FEEE has been building on its expertise with the Green Keys programme, under which labels are awarded to open-air tourist accommodation centres.

In connection with this campaign, the FEEE was asked to participate in the Life programme VISIT (Voluntary Initiative for Sustainability in Tourism), which aims to promote existing European ecolabels for tourism. This programme currently receives substantial financial support from the Commission (EUR 882 858).

At the same time, the FEEE learned to its surprise and interest of Commission plans under which tourist accommodation establishments would not be allowed to use the European ecolabel.

It would seem contradictory for both these initiatives to have originated from the same institution, with one aiming to promote existing initiatives and the other to eliminate and replace them.

Could the Commission clearly indicate what its intentions are with regard to the future of European ecolabels for tourism?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(18 October 2002)

The Honourable Member asks the Commission for clarification on two initiatives in the tourism sector: The LIFE project VISIT and the European eco-label for tourist accommodation.

Both activities should be complementary and aim at improving the environmental performance of tourist enterprises in Europe through labelling systems. Against a background of about 60 different labels on the market, the two initiatives look at ways to ensure that the consumer has access to reliable information on the environmental quality of tourist services.

The VISIT project provides a common information platform to increase public awareness for the participating labelling schemes. Only those schemes which fulfil some minimum basic standards for their criteria and their verification procedures can benefit from this platform. This does not imply that all participating schemes have the same ecological criteria and certification systems.

The European eco-label for tourist accommodation will offer a harmonised European third party certified eco-label, which is easily recognisable as the same logo will be used for all tourist accommodation with the award throughout Europe. The consumer can be confident that the service bearing the label is one of the best with respect to its environmental performance.

With respect to the national Type I labelling systems the Community eco-label has a policy of co-operation and co-ordination to strengthen their role in achieving more sustainable consumption patterns in Europe. Thus the Community eco-label criteria currently under development foresee credits for existing Type I eco-labels in the scoring system. The status of work in this area can be followed on the Commission eco-label web-site (http://europa.eu.int/ecolabel).