Hot issues for vending – April 2023

The proposal for a Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPWR) has started its scrutiny in the European Parliament as well as the Council of the EU (Member States representatives).

The EVA has therefore finalised our position paper outlining areas of concern with the text and providing a series of clear and specific proposed amendments which aim to ensure that vending does not incorrectly fall into poorly defined segments and targets.

We have consequently been intensifying our lobbying activities with both the European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) members, as well as with the national member states in the Council. This month the EVA has met with a number of MEPs and is in dialogue with other offices and Council representatives. Indeed, our position paper has now been seen by the Swedish Presidency negotiating team, who currently hold the 6-month rotating Council Presidency. The month the EVA also signed a letter – alongside other allied associations making use of beverage packaging – addressed to the Council to outline that the Commission’s impact assessment for the legislation is not detailed enough, it gives no direct evidence that specific targets and product reductions will improve either the use of resources or the overall environmental impact.

Updated criteria have been published for consultation for a Nordic Ecolabelled coffee service.

This label is extensively used throughout Scandinavia by procurement for coffee services, especially in the office environment. The EVA has been in contact over the last months with the organisation to explain the needs as well as the business model of the vending industry.

The new criteria aim to of course be stricter and the EVA will be responding imminently to the consultation.

The external study, carried out by consultants on behalf of the EU Commission, has been published.

The study provides a detailed view of the implementation of the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), and highlights areas that may need revising.

With regards to vending the key area of interest in this dossier is the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements, which mandate a PIN (or other verification method) after specific limits have been reached.

At the upcoming meeting of the Electronic Payment Committee, the study will be examined in more depth, and a new EVA position paper on this subject will be defined.

The EVA – together with the Vending & Automated Retail Association (AVA) in the UK – met recently with Re-Turn, the Irish company set up to manage the new deposit return scheme, which is due to start in February 2024.

The EVA has launched a new #Vending4Future campaign online, in order to showcase our industry as sustainable, circular, innovative and European.

This is linked to our ongoing lobbying activities in Brussels where in order to ensure that policy makers are as receptive as possible to a message, industry associations need to demonstrate what positive changes they are themselves making voluntarily.

The aim is to highlight messages that perhaps the average policy maker is not currently aware of, but that the industry has (long) adopted or plans to do. One example is promoting the modularly of vending machines that enables the ease of repair, which is in contrast to other equipment in many sectors.

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