Directive 2004/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste.

The present Directive has been enacted pursuant to Directive 94/62/EC, which establishes that the Council shall, no later than six months before the end of a five-year phase starting from the date by which that Directive should have been implemented in national law, fix targets for the next five-year phase. In particular, point 1 of article 3 of that Directive is supplemented by inserting the subparagraphs laid down in article 1 hereto. The addenda regard the definition of packaging , which shall be further based on the criteria set therein and the items listed in Annex I. Article 4 dealing with waste prevention is replaced by the text laid down in article 1 (2) of this Directive. Member States shall ensure that, in addition to measures to prevent the formation of packaging waste, other preventive measures are implemented. They might include national programmes, projects to introduce producer responsibility to minimze the environmental impact of packaging or similar actions. Article 6 concerning recovery and recycling is replaced as well.