WRITTEN QUESTION P-2445/00 by Toine Manders (ELDR) to the Commission. Violation of internal market principle in glass recycling industry.
Date: 2000-07-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Netherlands, State aid, glass, import, restriction on competition, waste recycling

13.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 81 E/201

(2001/C 81 E/256)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2445/00

by Toine Manders (ELDR) to the Commission

(11 July 2000)

Subject: Violation of internal market principle in glass recycling industry

In the Netherlands glass has for some time been recycled on the basis of the 1997 packaging arrangement
(Convenant Verpakkingen II). The system operates to the complete satisfaction of all concerned, and no
government support is necessary. That contrasts sharply with the Green Points scheme, which is expensive
to administer and operates in various other Member States.

At present the Netherlands system is being disrupted by the fact that the market for glass in that country is
being flooded with cheap-to-recycle glass from surrounding countries such as Germany and Belgium. Such
glass can be supplied at very low cost because it benefits from the high level of government subsidy
provided by the Member States that operate the so-called (cid:145)Green Points(cid:146) scheme.

In my opinion this supply of subsidised glass to the Netherlands market amounts to a form of unfair
competition to the detriment of Netherlands glass-recycling arrangements, and conflicts with the rules of
the Internal Market.

I also consider that government subsidies to activities that have been shown in practice to be perfectly
viable without them should be discontinued.

Is the Commission aware of the above situation?

If so, does it agree that this practice conflicts with the rules of the Internal Market, and what action will it
take to remedy the problem?

If not why not?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(18 September 2000)

The Honourable Member refers to the import to the Netherlands of glass from Member States applying the
(cid:145)Green Dot(cid:146) system. According to the Honourable Member the imported glass is subsidised and therefore
causes a distortion of competition on the Dutch market.

The Commission fully agrees with the Honourable Member that government subsidies for activities that
can be undertaken without subsidies should be stopped. Indeed, this is an underlying principle of the
Commission(cid:146)s policy on state aids and is pursued consistently.

The Commission has extensive information on the (cid:145)Green Dot(cid:146) systems operated in several Member States.
This information does not suggest that illegal state aid would be involved in the operation of such systems.
Should the Commission receive sufficiently precise information alleging the existence of illegal aid it would
naturally examine the matter.

The Commission has received various notifications regarding the creation of (cid:145)Green Dot(cid:146) systems for
packaging waste in several Member States. When considering a negative clearance or the exemption of
certain restrictive provisions, the Commission seeks to ensure that possible service providers can exist in
parallel and that companies with environmental obligations have a real choice of alternative means of
fulfilling those obligations.