On 4 March 2024 the European Parliament and Council reached a provisional political agreement on the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation during trilogue negotiations under the Belgian presidency. The deal followed Parliament's November 2023 mandate and the Council's December 2023 negotiating position, bridging differences on reuse targets, single-use restrictions, and recycled-content thresholds.
The agreed framework maintained the core ambition that packaging placed on the EU market must be recyclable and that overall packaging waste generation must decline compared with 2018 baselines. Flexible packaging converters focused on design-for-recycling criteria and extended producer responsibility modulation—mechanisms that would tie fee levels to recyclability performance rather than weight alone.
Industry reaction was mixed. Environmental groups argued reuse targets were softened; packaging associations welcomed harmonised rules that reduce the patchwork of national measures that had complicated cross-border laminate sales. Converters supplying EU brand owners requested clarity on transition timelines before redesigning pouch and flow-wrap structures.
The provisional agreement required formal adoption by Parliament and Council before publication. Lawyers-linguists revised the text through spring and summer 2024, during which drupa 2024 provided a practical forum for OEMs and converters to discuss how agreed provisions would influence press, laminator, and slitter specifications.
For machinery buyers, the March trilogue deal confirmed that PPWR would apply as a directly effective regulation with an 18-month transition after entry into force—making late 2024 and 2025 the planning window for recyclability documentation systems and substrate qualification workflows.