By a joint statement issued on April 17, 2023, a group of over 120 packaging industry associations expressed their concern over the potential erosion or split of the legal basis of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation.
The EU Commission, on November 30, 2022, proposed to transform Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste (PPWD, commenced in 1994) into the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (see proposal document). The internal market legal basis of the 1994 PPWD is Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which was introduced to address differences among the various national rules on the management of packaging and packaging waste and consequent internal market barriers. However, in recent years, the packaging value chain has witnessed an increase of unilateral and divergent national packaging requirements (e.g., packaging bans, reuse and recycled content targets, labeling requirements). The packaging industry has been facing increasing pressure. The 120+ industry associations note that moving away from the internal market legal basis (Article 114 TFEU), or opting for a dual one, will worsen this situation by increasing the fragmentation of the EU market. It may lead to the creation of a patchwork of national packaging legislation.
Therefore, these 120+ signed associations stress in the joint statement that maintaining the internal market legal basis is crucial to achieving the environmental and economic objectives. Their joint statement highlights the importance of a single circular economy covering the whole EU market, rather than 27 miniature ones. They also state that a strengthened market for secondary materials and a strong and resilient EU single market represent fundamental enablers of circularity, which will create greater economies of scale and underpin the investment needed to achieve a circular and climate-neutral economy in Europe. The joint statement can be accessed here.
Article 114 TFEU Article 114 TFEU is the legal basis of the current Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste (1994 PPWD), which allows the EU to harmonize rules and administrative measures across EU Member States. This legal basis will allow a number of key internal market issues that hamper the harmonized application of packaging rules to be addressed, including:
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