"After leading the way in Europe in its ambitions to phase out plastic packaging, France is now splitting up the single market and putting its operators in an incomprehensible situation of over-transposition." The interprofession would like to see a "single rule applied throughout the European Union." It is therefore calling on the French government to "repeal the decree as demanded by the Commission. The European law must be the same for everyone."
More than half of the plastic packaging has already been removed or replaced. The law provides for a number of exemptions for products that are very difficult, if not impossible, to present in bulk, or for products whose characteristics make it impossible to find alternatives in the current state of research.
Interfel has always stressed the need for harmonization at the European level in the implementation of this law, in order to reconcile economic conditions and technical solutions, and to avoid the existence of national measures to supplement the rules laid down by the European regulation on packaging and packaging waste (known as the PPWR1 regulation). It is inconceivable that French operators should be forced to make very costly investments and be exposed to distortions of competition under rules defined by the European authorities, in contradiction with the fruit and vegetable sovereignty plan that was nevertheless co-constructed with this government (1 Draft regulation on packaging and packaging waste (PPWR)).
While the European Union is in dialogue on a text close to the ambitions of the AGEC law, why is the French government choosing a solitary path, risking the unraveling of the single market by retaining rules that impede the free movement of goods, instead of aligning with the necessary harmonization? Why set common rules in a regulation at the European level while reserving the right to do as one pleases in each of the 27 countries? Why promise an end to over-transpositions if we betray our commitments at the first opportunity? France's position must now be clarified. Pending the definitive application of the European regulation that will apply to all, Interfel is calling for the French decree to be repealed, as it was adopted in violation of European law. Europe must guarantee the same rule for all, without the possibility of maintaining or introducing national measures. When it comes to phasing out plastic, we need to act together as Europeans. "One market, one rule!"
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