§ Mr. DafisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will make representations to the European Community to secure that the European directive on packaging and packaging waste is amended(a) to include reference to measures to encourage the use of reusable packaging, (b) to delete arbitrary assertions of equivalence and to secure that priority is given to source reduction, reuse and recycling in that order and (c) to ensure that consumer information and labelling distin-guishes packaging for which there is an established recycling route;
(2) if he will make representations to the European Community to secure the inclusion of a timetable for the reduction of waste at source within the European directive on packaging and packaging waste;
(3) if he will make representations to the European Community to ensure that those parts of the proposed directive on packaging and packaging waste setting standards for packaging systems are also applied to packaging exported from member states to non-EC countries;
(4) if he will make representations to the European Community to secure that information submitted under article 8 and annex III of the European directive on packaging and packaging waste includes information on toxic substances;
(5) if he will make representations to the European Community to secure that the European directive on packaging and packaging waste is amended to include (a) specific targets for the recycling of collected material, (b) targets for reuse and source reduction and (c) measures to increase the proportion of recycled materials used in packaging.
§ Mr. YeoThe Government support the proposed directive as a means of harmonising the basis on which member states take measures relating to packaging and packaging waste, in order to avoid distortion to competition and restrictions to trade. We also see the proposal as environmentally beneficial. We have argued strongly for the directive to establish broad targets which are both realistic and challenging and for it to contain sufficient flexibility for individual member states to choose the waste management option which makes most sense in the light of local circumstance.
The directive proposed by the Commission establishes an overall target for the recovery of waste packaging and sets out specific targets for material recycling. The Government accept the concept of a waste management hierarchy which covers reduction, re-use, recycling and energy recovery and final disposal, in that order, but do not believe that it makes environmental or economic sense to impose it rigidly in all cases. There will be some 2W circumstances where the economic and environmental considerations point to an option towards the bottom of the hierarchy. We therefore oppose the incorporation of a rigid hierarchy in the directive and the inclusion of specific targets or timetables for individual aspects of the hierarchy. These could prevent the choice of the most appropriate option in individual cases. We believe that it would be more sensible to adopt a general target for recovery and allow local decisions on what constitutes the best combination of management options in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity.
The proposed directive also establishes a regime of essential requirements with which packaging must conform and ensures free circulation for packaging which conforms with the requirements. It requires the creation of mechanisms to ensure that suitable information is provided so that consumers and producers can contribute to the attainment of its objectives and to assist in compliance monitoring. We believe that it is essential for those mechanisms, relating either to the marking of packaging material to the provision of information to consumers, or to providing data for monitoring performance against the directive's objectives, to be as simple and clear as possible. They should take into account other national or EC legislation dealing, for example, with safety, performance or quality issues. Furthermore these requirements should be established in a manner which facilitates trade within the European Community and with other countries and takes account of the need for standards to be set in a world-wide context.
We believe that the pragmatic approach we have adopted during the negotiation of the directive has support among many of our EC partners and that many of our concerns are being taken on board. There remain significant difficulties with the amended proposal and we will be continuing to press for further changes before we can consider the text to be acceptable; we do, however, believe that the negotiations are going in the right direction and that we now have the foundations for a successful outcome.