Joint industry statement on the need for new EU packaging rules to uphold the Single Market

Ahead of the Environment Council on 18 December, APPLiA co-signed today a joint industry statement along with 100 associations urging EU Member States to ensure that the environmental objectives of new EU packaging rules are balanced with the principles of a unified European market, in which packaging and packaged goods can move freely across EU borders. 

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) will be judged against its ability to ensure the functioning of all value chains that depend on packaging for the safe and efficient distribution of products in a circular economy. In recent years, our industries have witnessed an increase in national trade barriers in the form of divergent packaging requirements imposed by several Member States.

We now face the greater risk that new trade barriers will be legitimised by the Regulation itself. If Member States are allowed to introduce new national sustainability and information requirements, and if the right to market goods is restricted to national markets rather than the EU as a whole, products that comply with PPWR could be denied access to the market of a given Member State.