How to apply for the EU Ecolabel
Evaluation of the application and obtaining the EU Ecolabel
Once the application has been submitted, the competent authority assesses the submitted documentation and checks whether the product or service meets all the EU Ecolabel criteria. During the assessment, additional explanations or documents may be needed, and the institution may also wish to carry out an inspection visit to the company. Once all the requirements are met and compliance is demonstrated, a contract for the use of the label is signed and the company gets the right to use the EU Ecolabel logo on its products or services.
Important to know concerning this step
Under normal circumstances, the competent authority checks whether the application is complete within 2 months of receipt of the application and informs the applicant accordingly. If necessary, the applicant will be informed of deficiencies or the need to submit additional documents. If there are deficiencies, the company must eliminate them within 6 months of receiving the notification. The substantive assessment will only begin after a complete application has been submitted. If the company fails to provide the missing information or materials within the prescribed time limit, the competent authority has the right to reject the request.
The overall duration of the assessment depends not only on the workload of the competent authority but also on the contribution of the company itself, in particular on the speed with which the applicant submits additional documents, corrects deficiencies or responds to additional questions. In practice, the competent authority tries to stay within 6 months for substantive proceedings, but the final processing time depends on the readiness of each company and the content of the application.
Once the application has been correctly submitted, all deficiencies have been rectified and the competent authority has been able to carry out a substantive check and assess that the product or service meets the criteria for the EU Ecolabel, a decision will be issued and an EU Ecolabel registration number will be assigned.
Thereafter, the Environment Agency prepares a contract for the use of the label with its annexes and forwards it to the applicant for signing.
Once the contract has been signed, the certificate is issued and the product or service is entered in the EU Ecolabel e-catalogue (ECAT),which confirms the official validity and visibility of the label.
References
Contacts
In case of any questions or to get advice, please contact the Estonian Environmental Agency. The Environmental Agency acts as the competent authority for the EU Ecolabel in Estonia.