Member states distance themselves from Parliament on food waste targets

5 months ago 13

EU ministers of environment agreed on a common position aimed at revising the directive on food and textile waste, on Monday 17 June, following targets proposed by the Commission, but falling short of the European Parliament’s ambition.

“Today’s agreement represents a crucial step towards a more sustainable and circular European economy,” said Alain Maron, Minister of the Brussels-Capital Region Government, responsible for climate change, the environment, energy, and participatory democracy.

After the approval of the compromise text, reached at the Environment Council on Monday, the Council is now ready to start negotiations with the European Parliament.

The ambition of the targets will likely become one of the most contentious issues. In its position approved in March by the plenary, the Parliament called for binding waste reduction targets of at least 20% in food processing and manufacturing, and 40% per capita in retail, restaurants, catering, and households by 31 December 2030.

The Council followed the targets proposed by the European Commission, calling for a 10% reduction in waste processing and manufacturing, and a 30% reduction per capita in the retail, catering, restaurant, and household sectors.

The text adopted in the Council provides the possibility of setting targets for edible foodstuffs by 31 December 2027, when the Commission will review the targets for 2030.

By launching the Green Deal for Europe in December 2019, the EU has reaffirmed its determination to half the amount of food waste per capita, at both distribution and consumption levels by 2030, in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), around a third of all food produced in the world is lost or wasted at some stage in the food supply chain.

In the EU, nearly 59 million tonnes of food are wasted every year. This is equivalent to 131 kg of waste per person per year.

More flexibility

While the general framework of the proposal has been maintained, “a number of flexibilities have been added”, added Alain Maron, “to help Member States achieve these targets”.

For example, whereas the Commission had set the target in reference to 2020 – the start of the harmonised measurement method – the Council is proposing that Member States be authorised to use a reference year prior to 2020.

“The general approach allows Member States to also use 2021, 2022 or 2023 as reference years, as 2020 data may in some cases not be representative due to the COVID-19 pandemic”, says the Presidency.

The ministers also agreed to introduce two “correction factors”, one for tourism and another for the “level of production” in the food processing and manufacturing sector because these factors affect food waste production.

“Not ambitious enough”

Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius was delighted that EU countries achieved a compromise that would enable “ambitious action to be taken at national level” to “respect” the UN sustanaible development goal commitments on food waste.

“I welcome today’s EU Council general approach on our Waste Framework proposal which will help us reduce food waste significantly and bolster our food security,” also tweeted the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, on Monday.

“We are ambitious, but we are concerned about the feasibility of the correction factor” at processing level, Sinkevicius warned.

According to him, despite the yearly fluctuation in food waste generation from food industry, impact studies show that “waste at processing level is decreasing in absolute terms.”

“We would have preferred something more ambitious,” said Steffi Lemke, the German Environment Minister, with her Dutch colleague.

In Germany, the law requires a 35% reduction in waste for all sectors by 2025.

Similarly, in France, the law sets the target of reducing food waste by 50% by 2025, i.e. an average annual reduction of 5% between 2013 and 2025.

“France has taken strong measures, such as banning the rendering of edible food unfit for consumption, imposing waste diagnostics or the obligation to offer unsold food,” added French representative Cyril Piquemal.

Anikó Raisz, Minister of State for Environment and Circular Economy at the Ministry of Energy in Hungary, pointed out that the compromise was sufficient, as it avoided “jeopardising the competitiveness of the European Union.”

“We hope that the text adopted by the Council (…) will lead to a political agreement,” she added, recalling that Hungary will take over the reins of this dossier on 1 July.