Every instrument available to the European Commission and the member states of the EU will be used in the EU’s first holistic strategy on plastics that the Commission is due to present in Strasbourg on Tuesday 16 January as part of efforts to speed up the transition to a circular economy (see EUROPE 11934).
Under the terms of this strategy, which combines legislation, economic incentives and voluntary commitments, all plastic packaging on the EU market will have to be recyclable by 2030, in line with the wish expressed by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in his speech on the State of the Union in September of last year.
The main goal is to protect the oceans but the objective is also to increase growth and employment by means of innovation and improving the cost-effectiveness of recycling in the EU.
The strategy will be presented by Commission First Vice-President with responsibility for sustainable development Frans Timmermans and Vice-President with responsibility for employment and growth Jyrki Katainen but also involves European Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella, Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska and Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc.
In addition to a general communication setting out the goal and the elements of the strategy, involving, for example, economic incentives, restrictions on the use of microplastics and oxo-degradable plastics and increased international cooperation, a legislative proposal is also expected on facilities for collecting waste from ships in port. This proposal will fall under the ambit of Transport Commissioner Bulc.
Putting a tax on plastics as a way of increasing EU own resources, an idea floated last week by Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger at the weekly College of Commissioners’ meeting “will be considered as part of current deliberations on the next multiannual financial framework but is not a formal proposal”, a Commission source said on Monday. Reference to it may, however, be made in Tuesday’s communication, the source said. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)