MEP: ‘Ideologically driven’ EU packaging law endangers food value chain

An ideologically driven EU packaging law based on rigid targets could end up endangering the food packaging and the food system value chain, Finnish MEP Elsi Katainen told EURACTIV in an interview.

An overhaul of the EU packaging and packaging waste directive (PPWD), the main EU-level instrument dealing with how food packaging is placed on the market and requirements for its end-of-life, is due 30 November.

But a leaked draft of the proposal has been met with consternation by stakeholders, including the liberal lawmaker.

“I am concerned that the Commission is pushing forward a regulation that is not necessarily based on evidence and is driven by ideology,” she told EURACTIV.

The MEP particularly took umbrage with the fact that the draft proposal places too strong an emphasis on reusable packaging, despite the fact this is “robust evidence and data available that reusable packaging is not the best option in all settings,” such as in quick service restaurants.

For  Katainen, the ideology against the use of biomass in recyclable products is “hard to understand” given that EU forests are sustainably managed, which the MEP defined as meaning forests are “grow[ing] more than they are harvested”.

As such, there is a risk that the new legislation may in fact increase the amount of plastic packaging in the EU market, she said.

In this way, the leaked proposal seems “contrary to the long-standing goal of the EU’s Green Deal agenda,” she said, stressing the need for the circular economy to be front and centre of the proposal.

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Food value chain ‘at risk’

Some of the targets in the draft include 30% of reusable packaging for cold and hot beverages by 2030 and 95% by 2040, as well as 20% of takeaway ready-prepared food by 2030 and 75% by 2040

According to the MEP, an ill-conceived proposal based on rigid targets could have far-reaching consequences for the agri-food chain.

“By unrealistic thresholds, the Commission will put food packaging and the food system value chain at risk,” she warned, stressing the need for “more concreteness” about the role of packaging in food security.

Instead, the Commission should take a more holistic approach to the food systems value chain, including food packaging, she said, stressing its crucial role in ensuring food safety and food availability.

Food packaging has also a role in preventing food waste which, for the MEP, is not given enough attention.

Stressing that as much as a third of all food goes to waste, she said that food packaging can “help reduce food waste because it increases the shelf life and hygiene of food and enables suitable packaging sizes”.

“When the recycling obligations and systems are in order, packaging made with renewable raw materials can achieve good results in terms of the environment,” she explained.

“There should be more room left for innovations and I am not sure if setting rigid targets is the right solution for this,” she said.

Battle of the competences

It is for this reason that the MEP, who is also vice-chair of the European Parliament’s agriculture committee (AGRI), is fighting for her committee to have its say in the proposal.

Competence on packaging issues is usually held by the powerful Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI), which clashed with AGRI on several occasions on the assignment of crucial dossiers.

Recently, AGRI tried to become the sole committee responsible for the revision of the EU’s pesticide regulation at the expense of ENVI since plant protection products (PPPs) are normally discussed by agriculture ministers at the Council level.

In the end, MEPs in the agriculture committee managed to get a shared competence, and even exclusive on some aspects related to the EU’s farming subsidies programme.

Katainen hopes for a similar development on the packaging dossier as well, since, without the involvement of agriculture lawmakers, she fears that the holistic approach that is required will be impossible to achieve.

“Environmental issues are important, but a balanced and sustainable result can only be reached when food hygiene, food transport chains, food safety and also issues related to food production are taken into account,” she concluded.

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[Edited by Gerardo Fortuna/Nathalie Weatherald]