A debate was held on Wednesday 22 January at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the failure, at the end of 2024, of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) for an ‘international treaty on plastics’ (see EUROPE 13536/14). The session has been suspended and is due to resume in the spring.
Reassured that “more than 100 countries share the same ambitions” as the EU, the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, expressed his disappointment that no agreement had emerged.
The least ambitious countries wanted to limit the treaty to plastic waste management, and opposed any reduction to the production of primary plastic polymers, to the production of problematic plastic products (single-use products), as well as opposing bans and restrictions on chemicals of concern in plastic products.
“No agreement is better than a bad agreement”, said Magnus Brunner. To achieve this, he believes that decisions would have to be “taken by majority vote, if consensus fails”.
During the debate, MEPs representing the four political groups of the pro-European majority, as well as The Left, supported the EU’s ambitions. On behalf of the EPP, Liesbet Sommen aligned herself with the European Commission’s ambitions, urging the EU to act alone in the event of an international agreement not being reached.
At the start of the debate, the S&D insisted on the need to regulate production. “22% of plastics produced will end up in the environment and in our oceans, and only 9% of these plastics are currently recycled”, explained Christophe Clergeau (S&D, French), pointing the finger at “the oil lobbies, who see the plastics industry as an opportunity to reposition themselves”, because “we are moving away from fossil fuels”.
However, Sara Matthieu (Greens/EFA, Belgian) condemned the hypocrisy of investing “in large plastics production plants [in Europe], such as Ineos in Antwerp”. This certainly means “new plastics are cheap”, but it comes at the cost of “keeping the fossil fuel economy alive”.
“You can’t blame producers for everything”, said Anna Zalewska (ECR, Polish). Her far-right colleague Barbara Bonte, from Patriots for Europe, called for a “halt to this regulation”, accusing the EU of wanting to be “the moral leader everywhere” at a time when its industry is in decline. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)