Source: European Parliament
Priority question for written answer P-001968/2024
to the Commission
Rule 144
Kateřina Konečná (NI), Ondřej Knotek (PfE), Klara Dostalova (PfE), Ondřej Dostál (NI), Jaroslav Bžoch (PfE), Ondřej Kovařík (PfE)
We would like to raise the issue of the still pending proposal for a regulation on packaging and packaging waste, which should have been concluded by now.
The text of the proposal was agreed by the Council and the Parliament at the end of the last term. However, there has been a significant shift in the meaning of the text in the final stage, when it undergoes linguistic correction (corrigendum). This process is intended solely to remove linguistic inaccuracies and typos.
After the corrigendum, the following changes in meaning have appeared in the text:
• Change in the definition of ‘producer’ (replacing ‘any’ with ‘the’).
• New definition of ‘making available on the territory of the Member State’.
• Substitution of the terms ‘consumer’ and ‘end-user’.
• Mandatory labelling of packaging with the identification of the responsible organisation.
• Replacement of ‘may’ with ‘must’.
Preliminary estimates of the impact of these changes suggest that they would lead to significant economic impacts in the order of hundreds of millions of euros. Given that these clearly go beyond merely linguistic changes, when does the Commission plan to amend the text in a way that is consistent with the purpose of the corrigendum process and does not materially shift the outcome of the negotiations between Parliament and the Council?
Submitted: 5.10.2024