EU nations set to define new era of food waste policy

EURACTIV.com in partnership with edie.net

31-05-2017

 A trialogue between the European Council, Commission and Parliament commenced on Wednesday (31 May) to set out the policy frameworks for the next 14 years of European food waste action plans, and campaigners are urging the negotiators to “up their ambition”. EURACTIV’s media partner edie.net reports.

According to WRAP estimates, 15 million tonnes of food is wasted in the UK each year, comparing to around 41 million tonnes of food that is purchased.
[Taz/Flickr]

Negotiations regarding the European Union’s food waste policy are likely to continue for two months. It will define whether legally-binding farm-to-fork targets will be introduced to member states, although the Commission and the Council are lobbying for relaxed legislation.

In March 2017, the European Parliament voted to introduce farm-to-fork targets to reduce the EU’s food waste by 30% by 2025 and 50% by 2030. The decision was largely influenced by a campaign formed by This Is Rubbish, which gained the backing of more than 50 organisations across 18 nations and more than 70,000 signatures.

The parliament enters the negotiations advocating for the food waste reduction targets to become legally binding by 2020, a review which would have to be approved by the Commission. Parliament also wants to establish a “food waste hierarchy” to promote redistribution measures over other uses such as burning for energy.

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Parliament calls for mandatory EU-wide food waste targets by 2020

EU lawmakers today (11 April) urged the European Commission to set binding EU-wide food waste reduction targets by 2020, to be met by 2025 and 2030.

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However, the Council and Commission are pushing for targets that don’t capture the entire value chain of food production and are also baulking from legally-binding proposals.

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