EU leaves France raging as traditional camembert under threat from new Brussels law
France has become embroiled in a row with the EU over a packaging rule for camembert, with the bloc slammed for "the madness of bureaucracy".
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France has become embroiled in a row with the EU over a packaging rule for camembert, with the bloc slammed for bureaucracy "madness".
The EU is trying to sync packaging across the bloc, making it compulsory for it to be recyclable by 2030.
But the cost of recycling the wood boxes will be prohibitive, critics have argued.
The controversial policy could see most of the round wooden boxes traditionally used to carry the cheese become illegal, as they cannot currently be recycled.
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The boxes have been in use since the 19th century.
Guillaume Poitrinal, Chairman of the French Heritage Foundation, hit out at what he called "the madness of bureaucracy", adding: "The wooden box — low carbon, light, biodegradable, made in France — is better for the planet than plastic made with Saudi oil, transformed in China with coal-powered electricity and which will end up in the oceans."
Meanwhile, Clair Lacroix - the chief executive of Lacroix, the manufacturer of boxes for France's major Camembert producer - warned that a recycling scheme for the packaging would be "too expensive" to make it work.
She said: "Light wood packaging accounts for 0.001 per cent of household packaging waste.
"It would be too expensive to put in place a sorting and recycling scheme for it.
"It would be 200 times more expensive than for glass."
But the Commission has argued that the new rules would not constitute a ban for the wooden boxes.
MEPs in the European Parliament e EU parliament is set to vote on the proposal next week.
Laurence Boone, the French European affairs minister, said the measure could annoy voters - particularly in rural areas - ahead of the European Parliament elections taking place in June 2024.
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She said: "If you want to caricature Europe before the election, you start by annoying camembert producers and their wooden packaging."
Boone warned: "That makes everybody sit up."