Hands off our Camembert! France kicks up a stink over draft EU recycling law

Former French President Charles de Gaulle warned years ago: “How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?” Brussels should have listened.

French cheesemakers are rallying against a proposed EU recycling law, accusing Brussels of endangering one of the country’s most prized traditional foods. 

The draft law aims to phase out single-use packaging in favor of recycled materials. But French cheese producers fear the new regulation poses a threat to traditional packaging, such as Camembert’s distinctive wooden box.

French media have seized on the cheesemongers’ concerns, accusing the EU of threatening France’s “gastronomic treasures,” saying that certain cheeses would inevitably lose their “geographic indication” seal and warning that up to 2,000 jobs could be affected.

French Secretary of State for European Affairs Laurence Boone has joined the chorus of concerned voices, warning Brussels that it risks a PR disaster just months before the European election. 

“If we want to caricature Europe before the elections, let’s bother Camembert producers and their wooden packaging,” Boone told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook and a group of other reporters in an informal conversation. “It makes everyone jump up from their seats.”

A European Commission spokesperson said the law would not prevent the use of wooden packaging, as feared by some in France’s cheese industry. 

“Producers may have to … improve the recycling or reuse of the wooden boxes,” the spokesperson said. “But that would also apply to producers of other types of packaging.”

But packaging producers warn that introducing a recycling system for wood would be too expensive and want an exemption for Camembert boxes — which they say are biodegradable and produce less waste than plastic.

“Recycling is necessary, encouraging companies to use recyclable packaging is necessary, but we also need a little pragmatic realism,” Boone said.

The law still needs to be agreed by the European Parliament and national governments, and the Commission spokesperson said Brussels was working on “resolving all the outstanding questions and issues, in dialogue with the industry.”

It’s not the first time Brussels has faced a PR issue over food rules. For years, the EU failed to shake off the idea that Brussels banned bananas that were too “bendy” — a claim that pro-EU campaigners found hard to counter in the lead up to the U.K.’s Brexit referendum in 2016.