THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 95(1) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee(),
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty(),
Whereas:
(1) In view of the recent enlargement of the European Union, due attention needs to be paid to the specific situation in the new Member States, in particular in relation to the attainment of the recycling and recovery targets set out in Article 6(1) of Directive 94/62/EC().
(2) Member States having acceded to the European Union by virtue of the Accession Treaty of 16 April 2003 require additional time to adapt their recycling and recovery systems to the targets of Directive 94/62/EC.
(3) Since the objective of this Directive, namely to harmonise national targets for the recycling and recovery of packaging waste, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale of the action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.
(4) In view of the further enlargement of the European Union, due attention also needs to be paid to the specific situation in countries for which accession is planned at a later stage.
(5) Directive 94/62/EC should therefore be amended accordingly,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: