Bid to reach compromise on packaging

Date: 29/03/01

By Laurence Frost

LAST-DITCH efforts are under way to find a compromise on industry standards for packaging which are set to be rejected by the European Commission.

Talks begin on Monday (2 April) between officials from the Union executive and packaging industry representatives who developed the proposals within the EU standardisation body CEN.

"We have to find a solution," said Jean-François Stosser, chair of CEN's technical committee on packaging. "It's not just the packaging market we're talking about, it's the entire market for packaged products. We should be able to slightly amend some of the provisions of the standards to reach a positive outcome."

But sources at the Commission's environment and enterprise departments say it is too late to change their draft decision, which calls for far-reaching improvements to guidelines on re-use, recycling and energy recovery before they can be published in the Official Journal.

"Even if CEN comes to the meeting with an intention to improve the standards, we would have to see the results," said one official. "That could only happen after the proposals had been through the voting process."

The Commission's hard line will dash industry hopes that the adoption of the new standards would give extra legal force to the 1994 directive on 'essential requirements' for packaging.

Packaging manufacturers and other companies want to see the rules brought into line in EU countries such as Denmark, where a ban on metal drinks cans has provoked a legal challenge by the Commission.

"We want to make sure that protection of the environment is not used to set up barriers to trade," said Stosser.

Of the five new CEN packaging standards finalised last April, only one is on course to win Commission approval after Denmark lodged a formal objection to four of the proposals, and Belgium objected to all five.

Last-ditch efforts are under way to find a compromise on industry standards for packaging which are aet to be rejected by the European Commission.