Slovakia’s proposed amendment to the Environmental Fund Act raises major concerns for the packaging value chain

EUROPEN, together with over 40 organisations from across the packaging value chain, has issued a Joint Industry Statement urging national authorities in Slovakia to reject the proposed amendment to the Environmental Fund Act. The amendment would allow Slovakia’s Environmental Fund to act as a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) within the country’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system for packaging.

The signatories are concerned that such a model would undermine the effectiveness of Slovakia’s EPR system and jeopardise the achievement of national and EU recycling targets and circular economy objectives.

“Extended Producer Responsibility is a cornerstone of the EU’s packaging circularity framework. Allowing the State to act as both regulator and operator of EPR schemes directly contradicts the principle of producer responsibility set out in EU law,” said Francesca Stevens, Secretary General of EUROPEN.

In the statement, the packaging value chain calls on Slovak policy makers to ensure the country’s EPR framework remains:

• Aligned with EU general minimum requirements under the Waste Framework Directive;
• Supportive of the recyclability-at-scale objective set out in the PPWR; and
• Guided by international best practice and transparent producer responsibility principles.

Read the full Joint Industry Statement below.