In English

The Hungarian Ecolabelling Organisation is a non-profit state-owned company. We work on criteria development, licensing and marketing of the Hungarian National Ecolabel (Környezetbarát Termék védjegy) and the European Ecolabel in Hungary. Our duty is to manage the schemes of both the Hungarian National Ecolabel and the EU Ecolabel.

Activities in the national scheme:

• coordinating the operation of the certification system;
• developing new product group criteria, in association with the professional trade association;
• professional preparation of the review of the product group criteria;
• to perform both the presidential and the secretarial tasks of the Evaluation and Qualifying Committee;
• to give more detailed information for those interested in certification;
• providing consultation about the applications;
• receiving, processing and assessing the applications;
• binding a contract with the applicant if the application was successful;
• verify that the product meets the criteria;
• publish the information about the scheme regularly;
• administer the license holders,
• administer the professional operation of the Company;
• PR, marketing and communication activities of the Hungarian Ecolabel System;
• participation in the development and implementation of the Green Public Procurement national action plan.

Evaluation and Qualifying Committee

The Evaluation and Qualifying Committee is responsible for determining and adopting the product group criteria of the Hungarian National Ecolabel scheme.
The committee members (one representative): the ministries, the National Accreditation Board, economic interest groups, environmental non-governmental organizations and the Company.

Activities in the EU Ecolabel scheme

The EU Ecolabel was established by Regulation 880/92 ECC in 1992. The Regulation and related legislation are incorporated in the legal system of each Member State without any change.

The Member States entitle competent bodies, within government ministries or outside and ensure that they are operational. As the Hungarian competent body, the Company must meet the requirements laid in the Regulation (EC) No 66/2010 on the EU Ecolabel that is currently in force.

Competent Bodies are independent and impartial organisation. They are responsible for implementing the EU Ecolabel scheme at the national level and should be the first point of contact for any questions from applicants. They specifically assess applications and award the EU Ecolabel to products that meet the criteria set for them. 

As such, they are responsible for ensuring that the verification process is carried out in a consistent, neutral and reliable manner by a party independent from the operator being verified, based on international, European or national standards and procedures concerning bodies operating product-certification schemes.

The Competent Bodies meet three times a year at the Competent Body Forum in Brussels to exchange experiences and ensure a consistent implementation of the scheme in different countries.