FINAT Public Affairs Blog #4

With Spring upon us, regulatory developments in Brussels are heating up as well. Our attention has been primarily focused on an issues we have recently been informed of. End of last year, the EU Commission drafted an updated guidance for regulation 2016/161 concerning safety features appearing on the packaging of medicinal products. In the updated final draft document, statements were included that might have a negative impact on the (perception about the) use of labels for serialization of medicine packaging. Together with national associations and Members, FINAT is now exploring ways to ensure a balanced view reflecting the technical possibilities of our technology is included.

Sustainability and Recycling
European Paper Recycling Council, 5 March, Brussels
A taskforce, including Jacques van Leeuwen of FINAT, convened to discuss the revision of the EPRC guidance on deinking. In addition, a representative of DG Environment presented on the informal agreement on the revised waste package. Finally, the way to assess the removability of adhesive applications was updated with input of Afera and FINAT, with non-water-soluble or non-dispersible hot melt adhesives now exempted from testing under certain conditions.

Food Safety
UVFoodSafe Steering Group – 7 March, Barcelona
A wide group of representatives met to agree the way forward for the UVFoodSafe initiative and set up the mission statement and goals for the initiative. As a next step, the group will be divided in smaller subgroups that will focus on addressing specific aspects for the printing of food packaging with UV curing. A next meeting is scheduled tentatively in June.

Other
Seminar on extension of RoHS and Ecodesign exemptions for UV curing lamps – 20 March, Frankfurt
In this seminar, LightingEurope and European Commission members explained the developments in Ecodesign for lighting and RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive), as well as the way forward. These developments are important for the usability of UV curing lamps in the future.

Upcoming meetings in Q2 2018

17-19 April Sustainable Brands, Istanbul
A conference focused on sustainable brand-owners. I will be attending (along with other FINAT members representing their own companies) to increase awareness for release liner recycling and to develop connections to interested brand-owners.
23 April ESVOC BREF STS face-to-face meeting, Brussels
This meeting aims to consolidate comments to the received feedback on the first draft of the revised BREF STS document.
24 April CEPI Specialty Paper Group, Dusseldorf
At this meeting, I will present FINAT and the self-adhesive label industry to this CEPI Group to discuss ways to work together.
23-25 April EU Environmental Footprint Final Conference, online
This (online) meeting will summarize the findings of the various Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) Pilots. I’ll participate online to assess the potential impact for the label industry and the implications for, amongst others, our own LCA documents.
26 April Stakeholder workshop on potential policy options to implement the Environmental Footprint methods, Brussels
This meeting will discuss potential policy options resulting from the PEF Pilots. I’ll participate to monitor developments and provide input from our industry.
8 May CITPA Product Safety and Environmental Committee meetings, Brussels
?At this meeting, up-to-date information on various regulatory topics will be exchanged by a number of paper converting associations.
4 June Food contact material Cross-Sector Group, Brussels
Topics include risk assessment, communication in the supply chain and the upcoming harmonized measure on printed food contact materials
5 June BREF STS data assessment workshop, Seville
June UVFoodSafe

Important dates
31 May 2018 REACH registration deadline for chemicals imported or manufactured in(to) Europe between 1 and 100 t/a