News
26 Apr 2023

The PPWR: Where do we stand?

The European Commission's proposal for a Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) has officially entered the co-decision process, with the Parliament and Council now discussing the details of the text under an ambitious timeline.

In Parliament, MEP Frédérique Ries was appointed Rapporteur in the lead ENVI Committee and delivered her draft report on 11 April. The IMCO, ITRE and AGRI Committees will also provide opinions. While the latter will take the form of a simple opinion, IMCO and ITRE Committees have both requested some exclusive competences on the file but no agreement has been reached yet with the ENVI Committee on the competences’ attribution. The President of the ITRE Committee, Cristian-Silviu BUŞOI, together with nearly 40 other MEPs, addressed a letter to the European Commission calling for “a more concise and extensive impact assessment”, raising concerns about the lack of sufficient data on the impact of the proposal in multiple areas, from climate and environmental impact, to food safety and consumer affordability. Similar concerns regarding the quality of the impact assessment have been raised also by several Ministers, during the recent exchange of views at the informal Environment Council of 16 March, with some also questioning a too ambitious timeline.

Several Member States called for greater flexibility, to be translated in the change of legal basis of the proposed Regulation, from an internal market to an environmental legal basis, and a minority of Ministers even advocated for a return to a Directive instead of a Regulation. This would be a major blow to the integrity of the Single Market and to the upscaling of recycling across the EU, as it would continue to justify national measures and market barriers to the free movement of both packaged goods and secondary raw materials.

What did you miss?

What’s next?

  • 01 December 2022 - 24 April 2023: Stakeholder consultation on the Commission’s PPWR proposal.
  • 28 April 2023: Deadline for PPWR amendments in the AGRI Committee
  • 10 May 2023: Deadline for PPWR amendments in the ENVI Committee.
  • 24 May 2023: Deadline for PPWR amendments in ITRE Committee
  • 25 May 2023: Deadline for PPWR amendments in IMCO Committee