European legislators are under pressure to agree upon technical aspects of the EU’s new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) before the end of the current legislature in April 2024.

First proposed in November 2022, the new regulation is intended to replace the current Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste and include a wide range of new targets and requirements to reduce the impacts of packaging. 

The last negotiation session between the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union is scheduled for March 4, when all points of the PPWR must be agreed upon. 

From setting reduction targets and banning specific chemicals to bolstering reuse systems, the PPWR’s broad scope has attracted record levels of criticism from lobbyists representing private sector stakeholders, the Food Packaging Forum (FPF) reports. 

Once agreed upon, the text from the final negotiation will need to be confirmed by the involved committees during their last meeting in April and within the Parliament’s last scheduled plenary session at the end of April. 

The EU’s general parliamentary elections are scheduled in June, and there is a fear that changes in Parliament members following the elections may jeopardize reaching a final agreement.

FPF adds that these PPWR discussions are being described by many as increasingly political with individual EU member states and small groups of voting political parties refusing agreement on some aspects without getting concessions on others. 

The timeline to reach an agreement is looking tight, as various entities, including the Belgian presidency of the Council of the European Union, call for compromises, and external stakeholders continue to disagree on various points.