Protecting Greek cotton and ensuring transparency and impartiality in the assessment of environmental claims

Question for written answer E-001709/2025 to the Commission Rule 144 Emmanouil Kefalogiannis (PPE) Subject: Protecting Greek cotton and ensuring transparency and impartiality in the assessment of environmental claims Greek cotton is a strategic product for Greece. The sector comprises more than 47 000 farmers and provides a total of 100 000 jobs. Greece is the largest cotton producer in the EU, accounting for 80 % of its production, and the sixth largest in the world. In this context, there are concerns about the proposal for the mandatory substantiation of ‘green claims’ through the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF). Greek cotton producers claim that the textile evaluation committee is mainly composed of members of organisations representing large multinational fast fashion companies, with interests in synthetic, oil-based materials. Greek cotton production is based on natural, recyclable raw materials with a lower environmental footprint. In light of the above, can the Commission answer the following: 1. How does it ensure that the PEF tool does not leverage the interests of the lobby of multinational companies dealing in synthetic fabrics and that the evaluation criteria are based on real environmental and cyclical data? 2. What measures will it take to ensure policy coherence between the green targets and the means used to achieve them? 3. Does it intend to ensure measures are put in place to protect Greek cotton producers so that they are not unfairly...