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Stevens at Europen said the measures would soon run counter to the bloc’s packaging waste regulation, which comes into force next year.
The retail industry body EuroCommerce has also raised serious concerns about the commission’s plan to revise unfair trading rules, arguing that it allows member states to unilaterally apply their national law in other EU countries.
Leena Whittaker, director for competitiveness at EuroCommerce, said companies were at liberty to choose which jurisdiction they wanted for their trading contracts but “as soon as [governments] start to say ‘my rules can apply next door’ it is just completely crumbling the single market”, she said.
“Companies choose [a specific country’s contract] law because they understand what that law means. If this happened with every law that stricter national rules could have this extra territorial effect, what is the point of having the single market?”
The European Round Table for Industry in February last year published a 268 page compendium of “single market barriers” reported by companies, which it said represented only “the tip of the iceberg”. The list ranges from difficulties posting workers in other member states to different definitions of collateral for collateralised bank loans.
In an ironic twist, the UK, which left the bloc in 2020, has delayed changes to its own packaging labelling rules after Brussels warned they would break EU law.
London is keen not to put extra burdens on companies selling across the UK and EU or costs on consumers so will await EU proposals on waste recycling before pressing ahead with its own.
“We remain committed to a mandatory labelling regime and will seek to minimise the costs and complexity for businesses, while making it easier for consumers to understand how to recycle packaging correctly and meet our environmental goals,” a UK government spokesperson said.
Jonathan Faull, former director-general for financial affairs at the European Commission, warned at an event last month that “we are going to live in an age where protectionism is fashionable again . . . the last thing we need is national protectionism in the EU.”
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Publish date : 2025-01-12 21:00:00
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