Bonn faces dilemma over its food packaging policy

Date: 05/09/1996

GERMAN officials have vehemently denied reports that they are considering exempting imported produce from their quota system for food packaging, as a way of heading off legal action by the European Commission.

Rumours have been circulating in Germany that foreign companies might be let off the requirement to use refillable containers for at least 72&percent; of drinks sold in the country. But both the environment and economics ministries in Bonn have distanced themselves from what would amount to an extraordinary breach of the single market and clear discrimination against domestic manufacturers.

“How could we justify imposing quotas on German manufacturers when there were no such restrictions on their foreign competition?” said an official at FKN, the German packaging association.

Lobbyists believe the idea may have been floated by mischievous environment ministry officials trying to gauge public reaction to a two-tier system.

While the exemption of imported produce from the stringent quota rules would have provided a way out of the dispute brewing between Bonn and Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti, it would also have spelt the end for a waste management system of which Germany is intensely proud.

Last December, Monti wrote to Bonn warning that the country's laws could constitute an illegal barrier to trade within the single market and could not be justified on environmental grounds.

With the exception of milk, 72&percent; of all drinks must be packaged in refillable containers. If this target is not reached, a mandatory deposit is levied.

The Commission argued that scientific evidence did not necessarily prove that refillable containers were less environ-mentally damaging than disposable 'one-way' packages. It suggested the rules could discriminate against products imported into Germany over long distances.

After much delay, Germany has launched a robust defence of its system, reiterating its belief that the reuse of packaging materials is intrinsically preferable to recycling or disposal.

With negotiations at a very delicate stage, Commission officials are extremely cagey about revealing their next move. Taking further legal steps at this stage could prove difficult for the Commission, just weeks after the date for the transposition into national law of the EU's ground-breaking Packaging Directive.

Its job has been rendered even more difficult by the discussions already well under way in Germany about modifications to the Verpackungsverordnung (packaging ordinance).

Meanwhile, some industry sources believe Luxembourg will tell the Commission of its intention to withdraw draft legislation which sought to impose an 'eco-tax' on anyone who failed to respect set quotas for refillable and recyclable drinks packaging.

But in a crucial test case for member states' efforts to put the Packaging Directive into national law, Luxembourg's environment ministry remains determined to maintain the concept of eco-taxes in its legislation.