The European Parliament's Environment Committee approved the provisional political agreement on the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) on Tuesday. The compromise struck with the Council was adopted with 63 votes in favour, nine against and three abstentions, according to the Parliament's press service.
The draft Regulation will be presented to the EU Parliament for a vote in its second April plenary session, which runs from the 22nd to the 25th in Strasbourg.
The EU ambassadors of the member states agreed to the preliminary compromise at a meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) last Friday. According to the French political news service Contexte, only Austria and Malta abstained. Germany and Finland, while submitting notes detailing their continued reservations, agreed to support the deal reached with representatives of the Parliament.
The compromise text must still undergo legal and linguistic checks, but there is no longer enough time remaining before the end of the Parliamentary term for a finalised text to be presented for a plenary vote. The Parliament will instead vote to adopt a preliminary text, and any necessary changes would need to be made using the corrigendum procedure by the newly constituted legislature after the June elections.
The new Packaging Regulation would then be submitted to the Council for approval by the member states. Final adoption could take place around the end of 2024. After adoption, the legislation will be published in the Official Journal of the EU and would be applicable 18 months after it enters into force.
