EU PACKAGING
Trade groups warn on erosion of single market under proposed packaging regulation / Fragmentation could deter potential investors
The European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment (Europen, Brussels; www.europen-packaging.eu) and more than 100 associations representing the European packaging industry wrote in December to EU member states warning once again that proposals under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) risk unravelling the single market and could seriously jeopardise supply chains. The EU Parliament approved the latest proposals for the PPWR on 22 November.
 The European packaging industry has written to EU member states warning that the packaging regulation could jeopardise supply chains (Photo: Pexels / Anna Shvets) |
The industry has been campaigning for several months about the potential erosion of the single market as a result of certain provisions in the draft PPWR that would allow member states to maintain or introduce further national requirements. The associations also wrote to regulators in April 2023 voicing their concerns.
“Rules to cut packaging waste and clean up the environment will only succeed if they are workable for business – which means protecting the integrity of the single market,” said Europen secretary general Francesca Stevens.
Related: Interview on PPWR with German association IK
She added that granting “carte blanche” to governments to introduce unilateral restrictions would severely impact jobs, growth and competitiveness, “setting the clock back on the Green Deal”. It would also scare away investors from financing the new technologies needed to process and convert the waste into a tradeable commodity.
Stevens also raised concerns in November about obstacles in the draft PPWR that would threaten value chains, although she also praised the European Parliament’s elimination of some arbitrary bans and reuse targets.
The next stage is for the Council of Ministers to adopt a position on the PPWR proposals. The regulation could possibly be adopted prior to the parliamentary elections in June 2024.
Apart from Europen, other signatories from the plastics sector include:
- Asociación Española de Industriales de Plásticos (ANAIP, Madrid; www.anaip.es)
- Associação Portuguesa da Indústria de Plásticos (APIP, Lisbon; www.apip.pt)
- British Plastics Federation (BPF, London; www.bpf.co.uk)
- Ceflex (Brussels; www.ceflex.eu)
- Cicloplast (Madrid; www.cicloplast.com)
- Elipso (Paris; www.elipso.org)
- Etma (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.etma-online.org)
- European Bioplastics (EUBP, Berlin; www.european-bioplastics.org)
- Eumeps (Brussels; www.eumeps.org)
- European Plastics Converters (EuPC, Brussels; www.plasticsconverters.eu)
- IK (Bad Homburg, Germany; www.kunststoffverpackungen.de)
- PET Europe (Brussels; www.pet-europe.org)
- Plastics Europe (Brussels; www.plasticseurope.org)
- Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform (PCEP, Brussels; www.pcep.eu)
- Polish Union of Plastics Converters (Warsaw; www.pzpts.pl)
- Styrenics Circular Solutions (SCS, Brussels; www.styrenics-circular-solutions.com)
- Unionplast (Cimadolmo, Italy; www.unionplast.it)
21.12.2023 Plasteurope.com [254229-0]
Published on 21.12.2023