Overview

• On June 23, EU member states and Parliament negotiators paused discussions on the Green Claims Directive after Commission officials warned it would impose excessive administrative burdens on almost 30 million micro and small enterprises.
• Italy’s government formally withdrew its support for the proposal, depriving the Council of a majority and prompting the Polish presidency to cancel the final round of negotiations.
• Centrists and left-leaning MEPs accused the European People’s Party and far-right groups of engineering the directive’s collapse, with Renew Europe’s Valérie Hayer condemning the move as an “unprecedented institutional scandal.”
• European Commission spokespeople clarified that the directive could be reinstated if microenterprises are exempted, but the abrupt reversal has exposed internal infighting and cast doubts on President Ursula von der Leyen’s leadership.
• Researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute warn that the bloc’s new emphasis on competitiveness and clean industry risks overshadowing environmental ambition and jeopardizing its 2050 climate neutrality commitments.