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Cándido García Molyneux

Cándido García Molyneux provides clients with regulatory, policy and strategic advice on EU environmental and product safety legislation. He helps clients influence EU legislation and guidance and comply with requirements in an efficient manner, representing them before the EU Courts and institutions.

Cándido co-chairs the firm’s Environmental Practice Group.

Cándido has a deep knowledge of EU requirements on chemicals, circular economy and waste management, climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energies as well as their interrelationship with specific product categories and industries, such as electronics, cosmetics, healthcare products, and more general consumer products.

In addition, Cándido has particular expertise on EU institutional and trade law, and the import of food products into the EU. Cándido also regularly advises clients on Spanish food and drug law.

Cándido is described by Chambers Europe as being "creative and frighteningly smart." His clients note that “he has a very measured, considered, deliberative manner,” and that “he has superb analytical and writing skills.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on the need for resilient supply chains, including perhaps most importantly, the critical need for sustainable supplies of healthy food.  In line with this, the European Commission (the “Commission”) has published a Communication on a Farm to Fork Strategy (the “Strategy”) where it announces a series of legislative and policy initiatives intended to place sustainability at the center of EU food law and policy by ensuring fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food systems.  The Strategy is one of the main pillars of the European Green Deal that, in December 2019, the European Commission announced as its policy flagship for the next five years.
Continue Reading The European Commission Announces a Sustainable Food Strategy for Europe

On March 4, 2020, the European Commission delivered the first major climate piece of its European Green Deal: it proposed a “European Climate Law,” which takes the form of a Regulation and establishes a framework for the irreversible and gradual reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the enhancement of removals in the European Union.  The proposal and the fact that it takes the form of a binding Regulation may have a significant impact on a wide variety of legislative and policy initiatives that the EU and its Member States may take within the next years.
Continue Reading Call Me By My Name: The Importance of the European Commission’s Proposed Climate Change Law

Last week, the European Commission took a major step to implement the climate aspects of its European Green Deal.  It presented a proposal for a European Climate Law and two consultations on its announced Climate Pact and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (“CBAM”).
Continue Reading Climate Change: The EU Moves Towards a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

On December 20, 2019, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands confirmed the judgements of a District Court and an Appeal Court requiring the Dutch Government to achieve a reduction of greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions of 25% by 2020 compared to 1990, instead of the 20% reduction that the government had envisioned since 2011. The case was brought by the Urgenda Foundation — a Dutch NGO — and has resulted in a landmark decision that may influence climate change litigation in other countries across Europe, such as the lawsuit filed by NGOs in Germany on January 15, 2020.
Continue Reading The Dutch Supreme Court holds that the Netherlands Has a Human Rights Obligation to Mitigate Climate Change: The Urgenda Case

Electronic devices and their components marketed in the European Union and European Economic Area are subject to a morass of environmental and product safety requirements that is only likely to increase with the EU’s implementation of its Circular Economy Strategy in the near future.  The requirements apply to all types of equipment, from sophisticated information technology equipment, to military equipment, aircraft components, electronic medical devices, household electronics, consumer devices, and industrial tools.
Continue Reading Environmental and Safety Requirements Affecting the Marketing of Electronic Devices and their Components in the European Union and European Economic Area

The European Union has adopted a new obligation on suppliers of articles that contain substances listed in the REACH Candidate List of SVHCs in concentrations above 0,1% to submit a notification to the European Chemicals Agency (“ECHA”).  The new requirement is intended to facilitate the recycling of products and was introduced by a new Directive amending the EU Waste Framework Directive.
Continue Reading New EU Requirements on Products Containing REACH Candidate List SVHCs

Citing a responsibility to tackle the problem of marine litter originating from Europe, on May 28, 2018, the European Commission presented a proposal for a Directive on Single Use Plastic Products that if adopted will restrict and increase the costs of marketing different categories of single use plastic products and fishing gear containing plastic.  Many plastics, such as polypropylene, are produced from petroleum derivatives.  The proposal is one of the main measures that the Commission announced in its Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy and is mainly intended to address plastic marine litter in oceans and seas.
Continue Reading European Commission Proposes Marketing Restrictions on Single Use Plastic Products

Last week the European Commission presented an extensive package of legislative proposals (“Clean Energy Package”) that are intended to achieve and implement the European Union’s climate change and clean energy targets for 2030: a 40% cut of CO2 emissions, a share of 27% for renewable energies, and energy savings of 30%.

The package presents both opportunities and challenges for energy-related industries as well as for information technology companies whose products will help to achieve Europe’s energy efficiency objectives.  According to the Commission, its proposals should mobilize up to 177 billion Euros of public and private investment per year from 2021, and generate up to a 1% increase in GDP over the next decade.

The Commission’s proposals are a first step of a legislative process in the European Parliament and Council that is likely to last at least 18 months, and will provide industry with opportunities to influence the legislation on renewable energies and energy efficiency that will apply in the EU as of 2021.Continue Reading The European Commission Presents its 2030 Clean Energy Package

The EU recently published a Guidance on Compliance Criteria on Environmental Claims (“Environmental Claims Guidance”).  The Guidance is intended to support economic operators and EU Member State enforcement authorities in  their application and implementation of the principles of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (“UCP Directive”) to self-declared environmental claims and related graphics and imagery.  The UCP Directive establishes principles to prevent unfair commercial practices that may harm the commercial interests of consumers.
Continue Reading EU Adopts New Guidance on Environmental Claims

The European Commission has adopted a Circular Economy Package (“Package”) intended to create a single market for the reuse of materials and resources.  The policy initiatives discussed in the Package will impose on companies manufacturing or marketing goods in Europe additional eco-design, waste take back, and other producer responsibility requirements.  Some initiatives may also encourage the development of second hand and other alternative markets.

The Package consists of a framework Communication and various upcoming legislative and non-legislative initiatives, including:

  • legislative proposals to amend the Waste Directive, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, the Waste Landfill Directive, and the Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment;
  •  announcements of upcoming legislative proposals to amend the EU Fertilizers Regulation, to introduce new product design, and marking requirements to facilitate the dismantling, reuse and recycling of electronic displays;
  •  an initiative on Green Public Procurement; and
  •  the review of the voluntary EU eco-label criteria.

The Package is intended to replace a series of previous legislative and policy initiatives on waste and resource efficiency that, in a controversial move, the Commission withdrew earlier this year.
Continue Reading The European Commission Adopts Circular Economy Package