A former Tory MP who is now working for a leading plastic manufacturer is facing claims the business is exploiting its employees’ links to the British Conservatives to block a ban on plastic bags at European Union level.<\/p>\n
Margrete Auken, a Danish MEP pushing for a ban on oxo-biodegradable plastic bags, has accused\u00a0Symphony Environmental Technologies of using its links to the UK Conservative-led government to orchestrate an EU blocking minority against her bag ban in the EU Council of Ministers.<\/p>\n
Martin Callanan, the former Chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists group who lost his seat in May\u2019s European elections, joined Symphony as a consultant on 5 November.<\/p>\n
He joins\u00a0Nirj Deva, a Tory MEP since 1999 who is also Symphony\u2019s Chairman of the Board of Directors. Deva is not involved in the lobbying effort as EU parliamentary rules would forbid it.<\/p>\n
Contentious amendment<\/strong><\/p>\n The European Commission\u2019s original 2013 legislation to reduce lightweight plastic bag consumption in the EU did not include an outright ban or mandatory pricing.<\/p>\n Auken introduced the ban on oxy-biodegradable bags, a type of plastic, as an amendment to the bill, which targets an 80% reduction in the use of lightweight plastic bags by 2019 and a consumer charge for their use.<\/p>\n Symphony board deputy chairman Michael Stephen, a former Tory MP, told EurActiv, \u201cShe\u2019s shown her colours. We don\u2019t think the European Parliament should choose people like her to be rapporteurs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we heard about this attack, [the ban] we had to defend ourselves,\u201d Stephen, a former Westminster environmental committee member, told EurActiv.\u00a0 \u201cWe asked our own government, the UK government, to look into the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Supporters of the technology say it is degradable, but critics argue it breaks down into harmful microplastics instead.<\/p>\n The Commission is carrying out research on the bags, which the UK wants completed before any ban is agreed. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have mandatory pricing; England is considering a similar initiative.<\/p>\n The UK government was not trying to protect Symphony, Stephen said.\u00a0But they did not think it was right to inflict serious damage on the industry before the study was completed.<\/p>\n UK government sources confirmed that Britain was against a ban and mandatory pricing, and that other member states were supportive of that position. EurActiv understands they include Poland, Croatia, Denmark, Bulgaria and Slovakia.<\/p>\n The row has erupted just days before Monday\u2019s trilogue, preliminary talks between the Council and Parliament aimed at agreeing a common position on the bill so it can be made law.<\/p>\n Tory ties<\/strong><\/p>\n Auken told reporters yesterday, \u201cWe\u2019re faced with a situation where the UK Tory government is fighting hard to defend a minute, UK based company with strong Tory ties.<\/p>\n \u201cA company that offers an absurd technology that creates direct environmental problems, but also indirect ones such as recycling and composting.\u201d<\/p>\n The Danish member of the European Greens, who said Symphony employed just 30 people, was blasted by Stephen, who said she had made an \u201coutrageous statement\u201d.<\/p>\n Stephen said that Symphony was never invited to address the European Parliament\u2019s Environment Committee when the ban was being debated.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything she says is 100% wrong.\u00a0 To base European legislation on that kind of nonsense is almost unbelievable,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Oxy-biodegradable plastic is proved by independent scientific research to be degradable, biodegradable, non-toxic and recyclable, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is so powerful about this company that you have a blocking minority of MS that want to defend this technology against the cause of the whole plastics industry, including recyclers?,\u201d asked Auken.<\/p>\n Stephen hit back. \u201cWhat about the links between the proposal to attack oxy-degradable, and the Italian companies that promote hydro-biodegradable or compostable plastics?\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if he was connecting the Italian firms and the Italian presidency of the EU, he said, \u201cYes, I am drawing a link between them.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that four of the six delegates to the European Parliament to the trilogue are Italians.\u201d<\/p>\n Auken\u2019s office pointed to a PlasticsEurope press of September 2013, which welcomed \u201cthe proposed ban\u201d before 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cNo biodegradable plastic bag is a solution to littering. But the so called \u2018oxo-biodegradable\u2019 plastic bags will fragment into microplastics in the environment,\u201d Auken\u00a0said.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone, including plastic converters, recyclers and composters, is very worried except perhaps the oxo-biodegradable industry and their lobbyists, which is why the European Parliament on two occasions voted with strong majorities to ban it.\u201d<\/p>\n On Wednesday (12 November), Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans hinted that he would considered ditching the proposal as part of his remit to cut back unnecessary regulation.<\/p>\n Every European uses an estimated 500 plastic bags a year on average and 92% of these are single-use. The low weight and small size of plastic bags means they often escape waste management and end up in the marine environment, where their eventual decay can take hundreds of years, the European Environmental Bureau, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A former Tory MP who is now working for a leading plastic manufacturer is facing claims the business…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[2317,6091,4571,4514,5585,2975,3334],"class_list":["post-23383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-european-commission","supplier-european-council","supplier-european-environmental-bureau","supplier-european-parliament","supplier-european-union","supplier-symphony-environmental-technologies-plc","supplier-uk-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23383"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=23383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}