Unwrapping PPWR… to the finishing line!

EUROPEN’s #UnwrappingPPWR story continues! And it comes with major news for the packaging value chain: the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation corrigendum was formally validated by the EU Parliament during its plenary session on 27 November and was rubber-stamped on 16 December by the Council.

How did we get here? As mentioned back in July, the lawyer-linguists worked on reviewing and correcting the PPWR text under the so-called corrigendum procedure. This review started after the adoption of the preliminary agreement in April and continued until November. The final version of the corrigendum was translated into 23 languages before being adopted by the EU Parliament, where it was first submitted to the ENVI Committee for endorsement before making it to the plenary.

What’s next? The last step of the legislative process was the validation of the corrigendum by the Council on 16 December in the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council meeting.

New year, new PPWR. Considering the above timeline, we can expect the PPWR to be published in the EU Official Journal in the first quarter of 2025 (date to be confirmed). Twenty days after its publication in the EU OJ, the PPWR will finally enter into force, and will start applying 18 months following the date of entry into force.

The end? Certainly not! Our work to thoroughly analyse the adopted corrigendum continues, with an updated version of our PPWR Survival Guide already available on our website. In addition, with more than 40 pieces of PPWR secondary legislation (delegated and implementing acts) and follow-up actions (e.g. reports, evaluations, reviews, assessments, guidance, or standards) expected, regulators will need to manage an intense workload. EUROPEN is prepared to support legislators throughout this process, and our industry experts are already sharing their knowledge and experience within different workstreams. Let’s work together towards a swift and successful implementation of PPWR!