The voluntary EU Ecolabel was established in 1992 for the broader manufacturing industry but in August last year, after eight years of negotiations, details were finalised for the Ecolabel for printed products.

To gain accreditation, products must be printed on paper bearing the EU Ecolabel, as well as meet other criteria relating to the entire product life-cycle, such as the types of consumables used, recyclability, emissions, waste management and energy use. Any parts of the product that are sub-contracted to another supplier must also fulfil the accreditation requirements and critically, the accreditation is given to a product as opposed to a whole range. 

The qualification criteria  have been criticised for their complexity by small business organisations as well as Intergraf, which said it was sceptical about the development of "yet another label for printers" due to the fact that printed products were complicated compared to other products bearing the EU Ecolabel mark. 

Intergraf secretary general Beatrice Klose said: "European printers are keen to demonstrate their efforts to secure excellent environmental performance. However, excellence should not mean inaccessibility.

"The excellence of the EU Ecolabel should not imply that it is either unaffordable or inapplicable. This is particularly true for printed products. Printed products are products designed by the customer. One order will not resemble the next."

It comes as the European Commission published a user manual for companies and the 'competent bodies', such as Defra in the UK, that are tasked with overseeing the implementation of the EU Ecolabel for printed paper at national level.

Intergraf collaborated in the development of the manual, the organisation said "in order to ensure that the label would be as applicable as possible for printers and particularly to ensure that a compliant range of products, rather than a single one-off printed product, can be licensed".

As the manual was launched Intergraf said it wanted the "unique situation" of printers to be recognised so that the industry could have the opportunity to achieve the standards without being either overwhelmed by burdensome costs and administration or discouraged from applying in the first instance.