The ‘packaging and packaging waste’ regulation, which was Published in the Official Journal on 21 January (see EUROPE 13563/28) and came into force on 11 February - although its measure will only start applying in August 2026 (see EUROPE 13577/32), is already the subject of a request for a derogation from around twenty EPP and Renew Europe MEPs.
In a letter dated Tuesday 1 April and addressed to the European Commissioner for the Environment, Jessika Roswall, these MEPs call for derogations from the targets for the reuse of transport packaging.
Article 29 and its reuse quotas “for numerous formats of industrial and commercial transport and sales packaging”, including the 100% reuse obligation for packaging used for business-to-business transport, is being called into question.
According to MEPs, for example, there are “no practical re-use solutions for some of the packaging formats concerned”, including plastic film for pallets and strapping machines. They also point out that sales packaging used to transport products cannot be reused when it is in direct contact with their contents (paint or dairy products).
The MEPs are calling on the European Commission to carry out an impact assessment “immediately” for “all packaging formats mentioned in Article 29, paragraph 1” and to use delegated acts to exclude from the scope of this article packaging formats “for which reuse quotas do not make ecological and economic sense”.
To see the MEPs’ letter, go to https://aeur.eu/f/g97 (Original version in French by Florent Servia)