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Verbatim report of proceedings
Wednesday, 16 April 2014 - Strasbourg Revised edition

Reducing the consumption of lightweight plastic carrier bags (A7-0174/2014 - Margrete Auken)
MPphoto
 
 

  Liam Aylward (ALDE), in writing. - One hundred billion plastic bags are used per year in the European Union and eight billion of these end up as litter. These plastic bags blight Europeʼs countryside and significantly damage Europeʼs rich and diverse ecosystems, particularly our aquatic ecosystems. Many plastic bags end up in Europeʼs water bodies every year and kill millions of marine animals.

Therefore, we wholeheartedly welcome the new rules in this draft directive aimed at reducing the use of plastic bags in the European Union by at least 80[nbsp ]% by 2019 through the use of marketing restrictions, taxes and levies, or bans.

We encourage the Member States of the European Union to follow the example set by Ireland, which is a front runner in the fight to curb the use of plastic bags. A 15[nbsp ]cent tax on plastic bags was introduced in Ireland in March 2002. This levy led within weeks to a 94[nbsp ]% reduction in the use of plastic bags. The Irish example shows that the targeted reduction of 80[nbsp ]% by 2019 is easily implementable.

 
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