ECOS | Environmental Coalition on Standards

News & events

  • 17 July 2026

    Electrification plan puts Europe on the right track, but it needs to be smarter

    By Alison Grace
    By Luka De Bruyckere

    PRESS RELEASE | With today’s Electrification Action Plan [1], the European Commission has taken an important step towards a cleaner, competitive and secure Europe. But it could do more to deliver the full benefits of electrification, ECOS says, including making sure it is powered by renewables, prioritising energy efficiency, and better integrating heat pumps and electric vehicles with the electricity grid. It also overlooks the massive environmental impacts of data centres– a gaping hole that must be properly addressed at EU level.

  • 04 March 2026

    European Commission wobbles on green public procurement with delayed labels and low quotas for clean products

    Press release, Brussels | The EU’s new Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) deprioritises decarbonisation with insufficient and unclear public procurement measures for clean industrial products and low quotas for concrete and steel, environmental group ECOS says. Mainstreaming green public procurement is the EU’s most powerful climate solution, with the power to make or break Europe’s climate credibility. Stifling its potential will be a missed opportunity, ECOS explains.

  • 15 January 2026

    European Commission embraces problematic “chemical recycling” technologies despite harmful environmental impacts and low yields

    The Rethink Plastic Alliance is deeply concerned by the Commission’s decision to allow the use of certain problematic, so-called ‘chemical recycling’ technologies to achieve the EU’s recycling targets. The first full recognition of ‘chemical recycling’ can set a dangerous precedent for future legislation.

  • 27 November 2025

    EU Bioeconomy Strategy hides old mistakes in new branding

    Press release, Brussels | The bioeconomy is not inherently circular or sustainable, it must be built that way. The EU’s revised Bioeconomy Strategy takes some steps to do that, but it missed opportunities to do a lot more, environmental organisation ECOS says.

  • 30 October 2025

    New data reveals the extent of Europe’s e-waste crisis

    Press release, Brussels | New Eurostat data released today exposes the scale of Europe's overconsumption of electronics and the continued failure to properly collect and recycle electronic waste. Environmental NGOs are urging the European Commission to take decisive action in the upcoming revision e-waste legislation: stronger and binding measures to prevent waste and promote repair, reuse and proper collection (including reuse targets), and robust EPR schemes with eco-modulated fees that hold producers accountable for their products throughout their life cycle.

  • 23 October 2025

    European Parliament seals the deal of first-ever EU law on soils

    Press release, Brussels | Today, EU lawmakers listened to citizens and science and rubber stamped the deal on the Soil Monitoring Law, the EU’s first ever law on soil health, after months of negotiations. Despite severe shortcomings of the endorsed text, this is an important milestone towards addressing Europe’s crisis of soil degradation. Its success will depend on impactful implementation.

  • 29 July 2025

    From Policy to Progress: Methane Regulation Hits One-Year Mark

    Press release, Brussels | New NGO coalition unveils first members and launches EU methane regulation implementation tracker.

ECOS is co-funded by the European Commission and EFTA Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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