On Tuesday 30 May, the EU agriculture ministers voiced their concerns about certain aspects of the proposal on packaging and packaging waste.
The proposal falls within the remit of the ‘Environment’ Council but contains a number of provisions relating to food policy.
In November 2022, the Commission proposed a revision of the packaging and packaging waste directive, as part of the ‘European Green Deal’. The aim of the proposal is to prevent packaging waste and to promote the reuse of packaging as well as recycling and other means of reusing packaging waste (see EUROPE 13176/6).
During the debate, France called for the risk of products deteriorating to be taken into account, given their perishable nature and hygiene quality requirements, when drawing up rules on packaging and packaging waste, particularly in the case of fruit and vegetables.
“It is important that the new rules do not create risks of food being wasted or food hygiene standards being lowered” (deterioration of products sold in bulk), said the French minister, Marc Fesneau. He also noted the need to pay close attention to current hygiene and retail standards, which make European food products attractive, so that they were not affected by the adoption of the new rules on packaging.
Several countries brought up the constraints that exporters will have to deal with when it comes to recycling and reusing packaging (glass bottles).
Portugal also felt that reducing packaging should not lead to food waste.
Denmark welcomed the proposal and spoke of systems enabling consumers to return packaging to collection points for reuse. Denmark and other countries have taken the view that the ban on single-use plastics in packaging for 1.5 kilos of fruit and vegetables is likely to have undesirable consequences for the sale of organic fruit and vegetables. Spain expressed “concern” about the retail requirements for fruit and vegetables (under 1.5 kg).
The ban on single-use plastic for fruit and vegetables must not lead to an increase in the use of food additives, warned Belgium.
Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for the Environment, confirmed that a review of the legislation on contact materials would be presented at a later date. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)