HOTREC success – European Parliament and Council agrees that food waste reduction targets should only be aspirational
On 11 January 2018, the Chair of the European Parliament’s ENVI (Environment, Public Health and Food Safety) committee announced to her committee that an agreement was found in trilogue between the Council’s Presidency and the European Parliament on the revision of the Waste Framework Directive. The agreement foresees that the food waste reduction targets (halve food waste by 2030) mentioned in the revised Directive would not be binding, but aspirational. A review clause would be inserted to re-assess the matter in 2024.
This is a major success for HOTREC, which has been constantly advocating aspirational targets at EU level since the end of 2015. The rejection of binding targets in favour of aspirational targets will provide flexibility to Member States when choosing how to deliver on their U.N commitment to halve food waste by 2030. This will allow them to better take into account local circumstances as well
the successful efforts achieved by the hospitality sector which is already a small waster that already take actions to even further reduce its low waste level. This should result in a far less burdensome EU legislation for the sector.
The Council is now expected to formally rubber-stamp the agreement once it is translated in all official EU languages before the European Parliament plenary formally adopt the Directive.