The upcoming weeks will be crucial for the progression of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), as it is expected that the European Parliament vote on the provisional agreement will take place during its Plenary session on 24th April, whilst the Council of Environment Ministers will do so in one of the two meetings that remain before June.
With specific reference to fruit and vegetables, the draft under discussion includes a series of provisions that have turned the food chain – from the producer to the distributor – against it. On the one hand, discriminatory treatment is established for the fruit and vegetable sector: while for other economic sectors, general and gradual targets are set, for fresh fruit and vegetables, a drastic ban on the use of plastic packaging and non-compostable sticker is envisaged. A provisional agreement that the sector has described as disproportionate, and counterproductive.
The European Commission, the Council and European Parliament have so far ignored the arguments put forward repeatedly and jointly by producers, trade, exporters and retailers against such a provision on the ground; that it will not reduce but instead aggravate food waste, it will have effects contrary to the sustainability objective it pursues, it will prevent Community producers from boosting value and differentiating their products or marking their origin, it will worsen the possibilities of traceability and food safety and, in addition, it will aggravate the already downward trend in the consumption of fruit and vegetables; an essential component of a healthy diet.
On the other hand, the regulation under discussion provides for a very wide margin of subsidiarity for countries. Member States that have already legislated on this matter will be allowed to maintain their own national rules (even if they go further than PPWR) despite the adoption of Community regulations. In addition, when deciding on the products exempted from the ban on the use of packaging, it is established that it will be each country that will define its own exceptions and not the EU. In other words, if approved, the PPWR in its current wording will allow as many rules as countries to coexist within the Union for the same fruit and vegetable product, which contradicts the integrated approach of the EU single market.
Copa and Cogeca denounce this unprecedented initiative which is contrary to the harmonising role that the EU institutions are supposed to play and recalls that harmonisation was, in fact, one of the main declared objectives of PPWR.
Copa and Cogeca also call on the Parliament to amend the draft currently in contention to align it with the position adopted in plenary to ensure that the PPWR exempts the restriction for the single use packaging for fresh fruit and vegetables, to not introduce an obstacle to the proper functioning and free movement of fruit and vegetables in the EU single market.
Copa and Cogeca’s Fruit and Vegetables Working Party Chair Luc Vanoirbeek stated, “For a European fruit and vegetable cooperative, which markets dozens of different products, destined for multiple countries of the Union, it is unthinkable to coordinate its conditioning activity, if the packaging rules were different in each country.”
Copa and Cogeca advise to redirect this file to repeal the national provisions already adopted and that the institutions (in collaboration with the sector) seek a regulatory framework with harmonised conditions for the rational use of packaging in the fruit and vegetable sector throughout the EU. We seek proportionality, non-discrimination, objective measurement of the sustainability of measures and arriving at a standard identically applied in all Member States. This would facilitate the free movement and marketing of these products in the EU’s single market and avoid the costs that would be incurred by companies in having to deal with different and changing rules depending on the country of destination.
In a context in which the European Union has just renewed its commitment to the agri-food sector, it would be incomprehensible to close this legislature with such an abuse of the interests of the fruit and vegetable sector, which is particularly dependent on intra-EU exports.
Fonte: Copa and Cogeca
