Germany given time to defend packaging laws

Date: 29/02/1996

GERMANY has been given an extra ten weeks to provide the European Commission with proof that its packaging laws are not an illegal barrier to trade within the single market.

The move came after German Environment Minister Angela Merkel told Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti that extra time was needed for studies into the relative environmental benefits of reusable packaging - such as glass bottles - and “one-way” disposable packaging.

Bonn intends to use the extra time to carry out “life-cycle analyses” (LCAs) on various types of packaging used for mineral water and soft drinks, following earlier research into beer and milk.

Monti threatened Bonn with court action late last year, suggesting that the preference under German law for returnable bottles over recyclable cartons discriminated against produce imported into Germany from other member states.

Bonn's request for more time to respond to the charge has been greeted with cynicism in some quarters. But Commission officials described the German request as “a positive signal”, seeing it as evidence of the seriousness with which Bonn is treating the case.

They also appreciate that the federal nature of the German government system requires lengthy discussions between central government and the Länder.

Meanwhile, Beverage Can Makers Europe (BCME) has written to Merkel and her cabinet colleagues Klaus Kinkel and Günter Rexrodt stressing that the Bonn government must prove its measures are “appropriate and necessary for the protection of the environment” and that there are no alternatives which would be less damaging to trade but achieve the same environmental objective.

BCME and other manufacturers of one-way packaging believe the evident preference in German legislation for refillable packaging is designed to favour local produce over imports.

Until now, the German government has pointed to the results of LCAs unveiled last July as evidence that the environmental benefits of refillable packaging can be proven.

But opponents of the German system claimed the results depended entirely on a number of assumptions on which they were based. They claim that the greater the distance drinks are transported, the greater the advantage of disposable packaging and that, by definition, cross-frontier trade tends to be long-distance.