Did the European Commission really want to ban Camembert boxes?

Six months before the European elections, which will take place in June, the true or false sifts through the more or less founded beliefs around the European Union. The True or False Cell is looking in particular at this recent accusation: does the EU want the skin of the Camembert boxes?

You may have seen this story in recent weeks: Europe wants to attack our boxes of cheese! Camembert, Pont-l’Évêque, or even Mont d’Or… Their traditional wooden boxes are supposed to disappear due to new European regulations.

Are cheese boxes really under threat? No, that’s not true, they are not going to disappear. However, the industry did well to make a big deal out of it because Brussels was on the verge of banning them. To understand, we have to go back to the origins of this story, a year ago, when the Commission proposed to revise the legislation on packaging with the aim of producing less waste, while each European citizen throws away on average 180 kilos of packaging per year.

An amendment that spares certain packaging

Brussels, with this new legislation, wants in particular to require that by 2030 all packaging be recyclable and also truly recycled. This means that there are recycling channels for all packaging. What was mainly targeted was plastic, paper and cardboard, but this future legislation also included – in fact – other types of more specific packaging such as those made of wood for Camembert boxes, while it was not There is currently no specific channel for recycling them.

But since this controversy, the European Commission has corrected the situation. Pascal Canfin, French Renew MEP and president of the Environment Commission acknowledged that there was a problem. Moreover, an amendment was tabled and voted on to exclude the famous wooden boxes from recycling obligations. This concerns not only cheese boxes, but also oyster baskets and trays of strawberries which will therefore not be affected, at this stage, by future legislation until Brussels has examined their specific situation.

Our amendment allowing the preservation of wooden boxes for Camembert, Mont d’Or or Gorgonzola was widely supported. So the subject is settled!

— Pascal Canfin (@pcanfin) November 22, 2023