Plastic bags to go - EU
2011-03-14 20:27
Brussels - The European Union is to consider banning plastic shopping bags because of their polluting effect, the EU's Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik announced on Monday.
Potocnik said "current trends in the plastic packaging industry are not sustainable," with production of bags having "exploded," leading to "effects [that] are all too evident in our environment and especially in our seas".
The European Commission will therefore look "at all options" and launch an impact assessment on "the possibility of a Europe-wide ban on single-use of plastic bags", he said.
The commissioner spoke on the margins of a meeting of EU environment ministers in Brussels, where the issue of banning the sale of plastic shopping bags - rather than just discouraging their use by taxing them -was raised by Austria.
Current EU rules do not allow such a measure, meaning that Italy, which enforced a ban on January 1, could see the EU commission start legal proceedings against it.
But in the light of Potocnik's announcement, "there will be no infringement procedure" against Rome, Italian Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo told reporters.
- SAPA