Directive 2004/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 amending Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste - Statement by the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament

• Published date: 18 February 2004
• Subject Matter: Environment,Technical barriers,Approximation of laws
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Union, L 47, 18 February 2004

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32004L0012

Directive 2004/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 amending Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste - Statement by the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament

Official Journal L 047 , 18/02/2004 P. 0026 - 0032

Directive 2004/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council

of 11 February 2004

amending Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 95(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee(2),

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty, in the light of the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee on 17 December 2003(3),

Whereas:

(1) Pursuant to Directive 94/62/EC(4) the Council is required, no later than six months before the end of a five-year phase starting from the date by which that Directive should have been implemented in national law, to fix targets for the next five-year phase.

(2) The definition of "packaging" laid down in Directive 94/62/EC should be further clarified through the introduction of certain criteria and an annex containing illustrative examples. It is necessary, in order to achieve the ambitious recycling targets, to encourage the development of innovative, environmentally sound and viable recycling processes. An evaluation of the different recycling methods should be made with a view to drawing up definitions for these methods.

(3) Recycling targets for each specific waste material should take account of life-cycle assessments and cost-benefit analysis, which have indicated clear differences both in the costs and in the benefits of recycling the various packaging materials, and should improve the coherence of the internal market for the recycling of these materials.

(4) Recovery and recycling of packaging waste should be further increased to reduce its environmental impact.

(5) Certain Member States which, on account of their special circumstances, were allowed to postpone the date fixed for achievement of the recovery and recycling targets set in Directive 94/62/EC should be granted a further, but limited, postponement.

(6) The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission agree on the need for temporary derogations for the acceding States with respect to the targets of this Directive. This should be decided on the basis of the requests from the acceding States for derogations to run in principle until not later than 2012 for Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia; 2013 for Malta; 2014 for Poland and 2015 for Latvia.

(7) This agreement will be finalised in accordance with the appropriate legal procedure before the expiry of the deadline for the transposition of this Directive.

(8) The management of packaging and packaging waste requires the Member States to set up return, collection and recovery systems. Such systems should be open to the participation of all interested parties and be designed to avoid discrimination against imported products and barriers to trade or distortions of competition and to guarantee the maximum possible return of packaging and packaging waste, in accordance with the Treaty. Discrimination against materials on the basis of their weight should be avoided. The operators in the packaging chain as a whole should shoulder their shared responsibility to ensure that the environmental impact of packaging and packaging waste throughout its life cycle is reduced as far as possible.

(9) Annual Community-wide data on packaging and packaging waste, including on waste exported for recycling and recovery outside the Community, are needed in order to monitor the implementation of the objectives of this Directive. This requires a harmonised reporting technique and clear guidelines for data providers.

(10) The Commission should examine and report on the implementation of this Directive and its impact on both the environment and the internal market. This report should also cover the issues of essential requirements, waste prevention measures, a possible packaging indicator, waste prevention plans, reuse, producer responsibility and heavy metal and should, as appropriate, be accompanied by proposals for revision.

(11) Member States should promote relevant consumer information and awareness campaigns and encourage other prevention instruments.

(12) In addition to the environmental and internal market objectives of this Directive, recycling may also have the effect of providing jobs which have declined elsewhere in society, and may thus help prevent exclusion.

(13) Since the objectives of the proposed action, namely to harmonise national targets for the recycling of packaging waste, taking into account individual circumstances of each Member State, and to provide further clarification on definitions...