Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-002012/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Alexander Jungbluth (ESN)
In June 2019, Directive (EU) 2019/904 was published, Article 6 of which requires plastic lids on bottles to remain attached to the container.[1] The introduction of this step was justified on environmental grounds. For example, around 40 of these lids were found on a 100-metre stretch of beach on the North Sea in Germany.[2] Likewise, according to the NGO Håll Sverige Rent, on the west coast of Sweden there were 46 lids per 100 metres at the relevant time. However, after the directive came into force in 2024, the number of lids per 100 metres more than tripled to 144. The NGO assumes that citizens are deliberately tearing off the lids out of anger at the directive and that they are therefore ending up in the sea or in nature.[3]
- 1.Is the Commission in a position to confirm the data referred to by Håll Sverige Rent?
- 2.Has the Commission carried out studies on the effectiveness of Article 6 of Directive 2019/904 on other stretches of beach in the Member States and, if so, with what results?
- 3.When does the Commission intend to take account of reality and revise this directive with a view to deleting Article 6?
Supporters[4]
Submitted: 20.5.2025
- [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32019L0904
- [2] https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/kleine-deckel-grosser-arger-wie-eine-eu-richtlinie-flaschenoffner-am-trinken-hindert-9782333.html
- [3] https://www.nius.de/gesellschaft/news/schweden-plastik-deckel-getraenke-europaeische-union-verordnung-eu-straende-muell/2c485ef6-66b4-48e5-8e57-16d9f5d5c23f
- [4] This question is supported by Members other than the author: Volker Schnurrbusch (ESN), Roman Haider (PfE), Petras Gražulis (ESN), Petra Steger (PfE), Fernand Kartheiser (ECR), Ondřej Knotek (PfE), Gheorghe Piperea (ECR), Mary Khan (ESN), Gerald Hauser (PfE), Stanislav Stoyanov (ESN), Alexander Sell (ESN), Rada Laykova (ESN), Dominik Tarczyński (ECR), Tom Vandendriessche (PfE), Anja Arndt (ESN), Marc Jongen (ESN), Hans Neuhoff (ESN), Tobiasz Bocheński (ECR), Barbara Bonte (PfE)