EU Member States confirmed their collective position ahead of international negotiations to achieve an ambitious ‘Plastics Treaty’ at an informal meeting of Environment and Climate Ministers in Aalborg, Denmark, on Friday 11 July.
The objective will be to reach an agreement on the Global Plastic Treaty during negotiations in Geneva from 5 to 14 August, following the failure of negotiations in Busan (South Korea) in December 2024 (see EUROPE 13536/14).
“Our mission is to reach an agreement, maintain high ambitions on key issues, put an end to plastic pollution, and do so in such a way that allows countries, particularly developing countries, to continue to develop their economies, but using plastic that is free of environmentally harmful elements”, warned Denmark’s Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke, while agreeing that it would “not be easy to reach such agreements in Geneva”.
France’s Environment Minister, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, has called for negotiations to begin based on the Nice Declaration, which was signed by nearly a hundred countries on Tuesday 10 June in Nice at the United Nations Ocean Conference.
This declaration reiterated the basic principles adopted by the European Union in Busan: reducing the production and consumption of virgin plastic polymers to sustainable levels; requiring parties to report their production, imports and exports of virgin plastic polymers; phasing out the most problematic plastic products and chemical substances of concern; require improvements in the design of plastic products and mobilise the necessary resources from all sources; and impose the polluter pays principle (see EUROPE 13657/5).
As a reminder, reducing polymer production and banning and restricting chemicals of concern in plastic products were at the heart of the disagreements in Busan. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)