{A bid by the European parliament to impose an 80% cut in the 100bn plastic bags used by Europeans each year could be scuppered by several states opposed to Europe-wide action, and a European commission that increasingly views targets as an unnecessary distraction.}<\/p>\n
\u2018Single use\u2019 plastic bags are light, convenient and easily thrown away but their very disposability creates an environmental threat. As many as a million seabirds and 100,000 sea mammals \u2013 including large numbers of seals and turtles \u2013 are killed each year by ingesting plastics or becoming entangled in the growing number of plastic islands that gloss large swathes of the world\u2019s oceans.<\/p>\n
But several countries led by the UK and Croatia are opposing EU-wide mandatory pricing or product restrictions for plastic bags. France and Spain are more supportive but the commission\u2019s first vice president Frans Timmermans on Wednesday said that he was \u201cnot sure\u201d whether the proposal reflected the previous commission\u2019s original intent.<\/p>\n
The Guardian has learned that the commission\u2019s secretariat-general is currently discussing whether to reject the proposal in a final negotiating round on Monday, sending it back to a council of EU ministers where it would likely be blocked by the need for unanimity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fear that although the member states agree that we have to act, they do not want us to tackle it at the European level altogether,\u201d said the Dutch Liberal MEP Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy. \u201cIt is extremely worrying as this is the fundament of EU environmental legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPlastic bags are a huge environmental problem that can be very easily solved, and that doesn\u2019t happen very often anymore in the environmental field,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The average EU citizen used 191 plastic bags in 2010 and only 6% of them were recycled, according to the commission. But when Ireland introduced mandatory pricing for single-use plastic bags in 2002, their use was reduced by 90% within a year.<\/p>\n
British opposition to a bag ban has been derided by Greens in the European parliament who have focused their fire on a strong UK stand against a ban of \u2018oxo-degradable\u2019 plastic bags, despite contrary advice from the UK environment department. The Greens suggest the UK\u2019s position is a result of the business affairs of leading Tory politicians and the government\u2019s Eurosceptic impulses.<\/p>\n
Symphony Environmental Technologies, the largest manufacturer of oxo-degradable bags, counts the Tory MEP Nirj Deva as chairman of its board, the former Tory MP Michael Stephen as its deputy chairman, and the ex-MEP and chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists group in parliament, Lord Callanan, as its consultant.<\/p>\n
Despite only employing 30 people worldwide, the company has succeeded in making use of oxo-degradable bags mandatory in countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Serbia and Kosovo.<\/p>\n
But studies by the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) and others suggest that the bags take two-five years before degrading, after which their additives help fragment the plastic into micro-plastics, which stay in the environment for many more years and cannot be composted or recycled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are faced with a situation where a Tory government in the UK is fighting hard to defend a very small company with Tory ties, using absurd technology that creates environmental problems and turning the issue into another power struggle between the EU and the UK,\u201d said Margrete Auken, the Green MEP and parliamentary rapporteur on plastic bags.<\/p>\n
In Brussels too, facing down the plastic bags proposal and other environmental plans left over from Jos\u00e9 Manuel Barroso\u2019s term is seen by some as a way of cementing the new commission\u2019s image.<\/p>\n
A block on the bags dossier would be in line with a document sent by Timmermans and Jean-Claude Juncker to other commissioners on 7 November, seen by the Guardian, which suggests \u201cwithdrawing pending proposals\u201d from the previous administration in a works programme due to be announced on 16 December.<\/p>\n
Laws pencilled in \u201cfor review\u201d include: a clean air package which would include mandatory curbs on atmospheric pollutants; a waste package with binding recycling targets of up to 80% for 2030, and an energy taxation directive.<\/p>\n
Several cross-party MEPs have already reacted with a strong letter to Juncker defending the clean air and waste packages for their \u201chuge potential for jobs and growth, as well as environmental benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerbrandy told the Guardian that talk of burying such key environmental policies was \u201cunacceptable,\u201d and symptomatic of a commission retreat on environmental issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe letter by Juncker and Timmermans is extremely alarming,\u201d he said. \u201cI find it unbelievable that Juncker and his people seem to believe that the environmental agenda is damaging competitiveness and growth. He seems to be trying to revive the last century economy we had in the 1980s instead of looking at the clean economy we\u2019ll need in the coming years. In the future, a company will either be sustainable or it won\u2019t be there at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Gerbrandy\u2019s initiative, Timmermans has now been invited to explain his thinking at a forthcoming environment committee meeting in parliament.<\/p>\n
An EU source told the Guardian that the underlying issue was about the value of legally enforceable action itself. \u201cIt is in the air that it\u2019s not good to have targets,\u201d the source said. \u201cThere\u2019s an idea that there are too many targets and we shouldn\u2019t have yet another one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The single-use plastic bags goal chosen by the European parliament is ambitious \u2013 for a 50% reduction within three years, rising to 80% by 2019 \u2013 with states retaining the choice to impose mandatory pricing or manufacturing restrictions.<\/p>\n
The commission\u2019s impact assessment predicted that this would bring \u20ac740m of savings across Europe of per year due to reduced litter collection, easier waste management and increased retail profits.<\/p>\n
England plans to introduce a 5p plastic bag charge in October 2015, following similar schemes in Wales and Scotland.<\/p>\n
The Guardian <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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