Packaging industry calls for recognition of packaging role for the resilience of essential supply chains

Brussels, 14 September 2022 – EUROPEN, the European Organization for Packaging and the Environment, welcomes the commitment by European Commission President von der Leyen to ensure Europe’s strategic autonomy and security of supply in her State of the Union address. In this regard, the vital contribution made by the packaging sector to the resilience of the EU economy and to the undisrupted functioning of societally critical sectors should be recognised.

“The lack of availability of sufficient and appropriate packaging can put at risk the security of essential systems such as the food and pharmaceutical sectors, disrupting products’ distribution and availability across the entire EU.” said EUROPEN Managing Director Francesca Stevens, “The Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine reminded us that the packaging value chain is vulnerable to price fluctuations, energy rationing and unavailability of raw materials, as well as to trade barriers resulting from uncoordinated crisis responses and management mechanisms.”

The organisation, representing more than 70 companies and national associations from the European packaging industry, urges Member States to recognise, in their national emergency plans on voluntary gas demand reductions and in ongoing discussions on the proposed reform of the electricity market and on critical raw materials, that packaging is an integral part of essential industries, such as the agri-food, health, hygiene and pharmaceutical sectors.

“It is necessary to recognise packaging and its raw materials as an essential value chain and to ensure that measures to anticipate, better communicate on, coordinate and manage emergencies are foreseen for the packaging supply chain in times of crises.” added Francesca Stevens.

EUROPEN remains committed to continue the dialogue with EU institutions and encourages the European Commission to take a holistic approach to emergencies’ response, coordinating the REPowerEU strategy with different ongoing initiatives, such as the adoption of a Single Market Emergency Instrument to better coordinate the European response to emergencies that threaten the functioning of the Internal Market, and the EU Food Contingency Plan to ensure food security in Europe at times of crises.

 

For all enquiries, please contact:

• Francesca Stevens
• Email: francesca.stevens@europen-packaging.eu
• www.europen-packaging.eu
• Follow us on Twitter @EUROPEN_ORG