EU Parliament Adopted Amendments to the Draft Single-Use Plastics Directive

The European Parliament (EP) adopted its position (i.e., amendments) on the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (Draft Single-Use Plastics Directive) on October 24, 2018. (A copy of the EP’s position can be found here.)

The draft Directive is being prepared under the ordinary legislative procedure (i.e., both the EP and the Council have equal say).  The Council may now decide to accept the EP’s position, in which case the legislative act will be adopted, or the Council may adopt a different position and communicate it to EP for further review. Neither the EP nor the Council is subject to any time limit at this stage of the procedure, although the EC has stressed the importance of a timely adoption of the draft Directive.

By way of background, on May 28, 2018, the EC released a Draft Single-Use Plastics Directive. (See the PackagingLaw.com article, EU Advances its Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy, for more information.) After reviewing the Draft Directive, EP’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) provided a draft report to the EP that included a number of amendments.