Pack2Go Europe (Brussels / Belgium; www.pack2go-europe.com), a trade association representing manufacturers of convenience food and drink packaging, has complained to the European ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, about the European Commission’s behaviour in relation to its plastics strategy and proposal for single-use plastic items. The association has accused the commission of a “blatant” conflict of interest, biased consultation process and failure to perform a proper impact assessment of its proposed measures.

The commission published its EU Plastics Strategy in January 2018 – see Plasteurope.com of 19.01.2018 – and released a draft proposal on single-use plastic items in May that could ban certain disposable products – see Plasteurope.com of 28.05.2018.

“The dramatic step of complaining to the ombudsman reflects the huge degree of frustration across the packaging value chain about the cavalier way the commission has abandoned its tradition of developing policy on balance, evidence-based analysis in favour of political expediency and media headlines,” said Mike Turner, president of Pack2Go Europe and managing director of Graphic Packaging International Foodservice Europe (Brussels; www.graphicpkgeurope.com).

Specifically, the trade association is questioning the commission’s appointment of Eunomia (Bristol / UK; www.eunomia.co.uk) as an “objective and neutral” advisor. Pack2Go Europe said the UK environmental consulting firm has been campaigning over several years for restrictive measures against single-use packaging and the commission must have known about the associated conflict of interest.

In addition, and at the same time Eunomia was working on the EU commission’s proposals, the commission paid the consultancy, via the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Seas at Risk (Brussels; www.seas-at-risk.org), to research and prepare an advocacy report on single-use plastics and the marine Environment – see Plasteurope.com of 13.12.2017. Pack2Go Europe said Seas at Risk then used this report in autumn 2017 to lobby both the commission and other EU institutions at a crucial moment in the policy process.

The trade association also criticises the commission for rushing through what it terms a “partial and inadequate” impact assessment on the measures to be applied to specific products. Turner said, “The proposed single-use plastic directive will cover hundreds of product types. The impact assessment on this is totally inadequate. It misses out vitally important analysis that will result in consumers being put at risk.”

Another criticism relates to the impact assessment’s analysis on employment, which Pack2Go Europe called “anecdotal and often based on conjecture with little or no clear factual evidence.” The European ombudsman could instigate an inquiry if she believes the complaint has merit.