Ref. Ares(2020)4498708 - 31/08/2020
MEETING WITH EUPC
30 September 2019 – 2 pm
Participants:
European Plastic Converters representatives:
(Managing Director) and
(EU Regulatory Affairs Manager)
DG BUDG:
Discussion:
We met with EUPC upon their request. EuPC expressed concerns about the plastics-based Own
Resource, in particular:
They expressed regret about not having been kept informed about the development since
the Plastic Roundtable of March 2018, and therefore were taken ‘by surprise’ by the COM
proposal.
EUPC highlighted the
negative impact of the Plastic based Own Resource on the industry,
in particular SMEs.
EUPC argues that
Member States would pass on the payments to companies via a tax. In
this context they said that Italy will introduce a tax of € 0,02/kg on the sector to pay for the
OR contribution. EUPC believes that different taxes in the Member States would
fragment
the single market.
They claim that the sector will receive only € 100 million from the MFF. They would
favour
an earmarking of the relevant revenues.
Furthermore, they expressed concerns about
quality of data (see graphs attached).
explained that
The plastics based OR has to be seen in a wider context, contributing to the EU policy on
reducing non-recycled plastic packaging waste, which already includes binding targets.
Similar to GNI,
the plastic based OR is based on statistics and we would not expect an
automaticity of Member States to pass on the Own Resource contribution to stakeholders in
the form a tax. So far, many Member States have made use of regulatory measures
(consignment).
It is wrong that the Own Resource will be passed-on to consumers or to the
industry.
As regards earmarking of the Own Resource, this is not possible due to the universality
principle of the EU Budget.
As regards the alleged lack of information, we recalled that views of stakeholders had been
duly taken into account (for example, by refraining from a tax on consumers or producers).
As regards the quality of data, we explained the recent legislative steps, including the
Implementing Decision of March 2019, which followed the amendment to the Waste and
Packaging Waste Directive of 2018, which
will further improve data reliability. We were
confident in the implementation of the new statistical rules by Eurostat and the Member
States. The work has already started with ad-hoc meetings and country visits.
This will
ensure that the Own Resource is calculated in a fair way across Member States. We also
recalled the control and monitoring rights by the Commission should plastics become an
Own Resource.
Note:
Indeed Italy is planning a tax on plastic although the link with the Own Resource is not obvious.
https://quifinanza.it/fisco-tasse/tassa-sulla-plastica-nel-mirino-del-governo-imballaggi-e-
bottiglie/312953/