Considerations on COM(2023)420 - Amendment of Directive 2008/98/EC on waste - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2023)420 - Amendment of Directive 2008/98/EC on waste. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2023)420 |
| date | July 5, 2023 |
(2) According to the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles5, important changes are needed to move away from the currently prevailing linear way in which textile products are designed, produced, used and discarded, with a particular need to limit fast fashion. That Strategy considers it important to make producers responsible for the waste that their products create and refers to the establishment of harmonised Union extended producer responsibility rules for textiles with eco-modulation of fees. It provides that the key objective of such rules is to create an economy for collection, sorting, re-use, preparation for re-use and recycling, and to incentivise producers to ensure that their products are designed in respect of circularity principles. To that end, it foresees that a notable share of contributions made by producers to extended producer responsibility schemes have to be dedicated to waste prevention measures and preparation for re-use. It also supports the need for strengthened and more innovative approaches to sustainable management of biological resources to increase the circularity and valorisation of food waste and re-use of bio-based textiles.
(3) Having regard to the negative effects of food waste, Member States committed themselves to taking measures to promote the prevention and reduction of food waste in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on 25 September 2015, and in particular its target of halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses, by 2030. Those measures aimed to prevent and reduce food waste in primary production, in processing and manufacturing, in retail and other distribution of food, in restaurants and food services as well as in households.
(4) As a follow-up to the Conference on the Future of Europe, the Commission committed itself to enabling citizens’ panels to deliberate and make recommendations ahead of certain key proposals. In this context, a European Citizens’ panel was convened, from December 2022 to February 2023 to elaborate a list of recommendations6 on how to step-up actions to reduce food waste in the Union. As households account for over half of food waste generated in the Union, citizens’ insights on food waste prevention are particularly relevant. Citizens recommended three principal lines of action including strengthening cooperation in the food value chain, food business initiatives and supporting consumer behavioural change. The panel’s recommendations will continue to support the Commission’s overall work programme related to food waste prevention and may serve as a guide to help Member States in achieving the food waste reduction targets.
(5) Directive 2009/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council7 excluded from the scope of Directive 2006/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council8 carbon dioxide captured and transported for the purposes of geological storage and geologically stored pursuant to the requirements of Directive 2006/12/EC. The provision in Directive 2009/31/EC amending Directive 2006/12/EC was not, however, incorporated in Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council9, which repealed Directive 2006/12/EC. Therefore, for the purposes of ensuring legal certainty, this Directive incorporates the amendments of Directive 2009/31/EC concerning the exclusion of carbon dioxide captured and transported for the purposes of geological storage and geologically stored from the scope of Directive 2008/98/EC.
(6) Definitions of producers of textile products, online platforms and producer responsibility organisations linked to the implementation of the extended producer responsibility for textiles need to be included in Directive 2008/98/EC so that the scope of these concepts and linked obligations is clarified.
(7) Member States have, to a certain extent, developed materials and carried out campaigns targeting food waste prevention for consumers and food business operators; however, these mainly focus on raising awareness rather than eliciting behavioural change. In order to reach the full potential for reducing food waste and ensure progress over time, behavioural change interventions have to be developed, tailored to the specific situations and needs in Member States, and fully integrated in national food waste prevention programmes. Importance should also be given to regional circular solutions, including public-private partnerships and citizen engagement as well adaptation to specific regional needs such as outermost regions or islands.
(8) Despite the growing awareness of the negative impacts and consequences of food waste, the political commitments made at EU and Member State levels, and Union measures implemented since the 2015 Circular Economy Action Plan, food waste generation is not sufficiently decreasing to make significant progress towards achieving Target 12.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12. In order to ensure significant contribution towards the attainment of SDG Target 12.3, the measures to be taken by Member States should be strengthened to make progress in the implementation of this Directive and of other appropriate measures to reduce food waste generation.
(9) In order to achieve results in the short term, and to give food business operators, consumers and public authorities the necessary perspective for the longer term, quantified targets for reduction of food waste generation, to be achieved by Member States by 2030, should be set.
(10) Having regard to the Union’s commitment to the ambition set out in SDG Target 12.3, the setting of food waste reduction targets to be achieved by Member States by 2030 should provide a strong policy impulse to take action and ensure a significant contribution to global targets. However, given the legally binding nature of such targets, they should be proportionate and feasible, and take into account the role of different actors in the food supply chain as well as their capacity (in particular micro and small enterprises). The establishment of legally binding targets should thus follow a step-wise approach, starting with a level which is lower than the one set under the SDG, with a view to ensuring a consistent response of Member States and tangible progress towards Target 12.3.
(11) Reducing food waste at the production and consumption stages requires different approaches and measures and involves different stakeholder groups. Therefore, one target should be proposed for the processing and manufacturing stage and another one for the retail and other distribution of food, restaurants and food services and households.
(12) Bearing in mind the interdependence between the distribution and consumption stages in the food supply chain, in particular the influence of retail practices on consumer behaviour and the relation between food consumption in- and out-of-home, it is advisable to set up one joint target for these stages of the food supply chain. Setting separate targets for each of these stages would add unnecessary complexity and would limit Member States’ flexibility in focusing on their specific areas of concern. In order to avoid that a joint target results in excessive burden on certain operators, Member States will be advised to consider the principle or proportionality in setting up measures to reach the joint target.
(13) Demographic changes have a significant impact on the amount of food consumed and food waste generated. Therefore, a joint food waste reduction target, applying to retail and other distribution of food, restaurants and food services and households, should be expressed as a percentage change in food waste levels per capita in order to take into account population changes.
(14) Based on the harmonised methodology set out in Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2019/159710, the first year for which data on food waste levels were collected was 2020. Therefore, the year 2020 should be used as a baseline for setting food waste reduction targets. For Member States, which can demonstrate that they performed food waste measurements before 2020, using methods consistent with Delegated Decision (EU) 2019/1597, the use of an earlier baseline should be allowed.
(15) In order to ensure that the step-wise approach towards the achievement of the global target delivers its objectives, the levels set for the legally binding targets on reduction of food waste, should be reviewed and revised, if appropriate, to take into account the progress made by Member States over time. This would allow for a possible adjustment of the targets in view of strengthening the Union’s contribution and further aligning with SDG Target 12.3, to be reached by 2030 and providing direction for further progress beyond that date.
(16) In order to ensure better, timelier, and more uniform implementation of the provisions related to food waste prevention, to anticipate any implementation weaknesses, and to allow taking action ahead of the deadlines for meeting the targets, the system of early warning reports, introduced in 2018, should be extended to cover food waste reduction targets.
(17) In line with the polluter-pays principle, as referred to in Article 191(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), it is essential that the producers placing on the Union market certain textile, textile-related and footwear products take responsibility for their management at their end-of life as well as extending their lifetime through making used textile, textile-related and footwear products available on the market for re-use. To implement the polluter pays principle, it is appropriate to lay down the obligations for the management of textile, textile-related and footwear producers, which include any manufacturer, importer or distributor, that, irrespective of the selling technique used, including by means of distance contracts as defined in Article 2, point (7), of Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council11, makes available those products on the market for the first time within a territory of a Member States on a professional basis under its own name or trademark. The scope of the producers covered by the extended producer responsibility should exclude micro enterprises and self-employed tailors producing customised products in view of their reduced role in the textile market as well as those placing on the market used textiles, textile-related and footwear products or such products derived from used or waste of those products in view of supporting re-use, including through repair, refurbishment and upcycling whereby certain functionalities of the original product is changed, within the Union.
(18) There are wide disparities in the way separate collection of textiles are or are planned to be set up, whether through extended producer responsibility schemes or other approaches. Where extended producer responsibility schemes are considered, there are also broad disparities, such as on the products in their scope and the responsibility of producers as well as governance models. The rules on extended producer responsibility laid down in Directive 2008/98/EC should therefore in general apply to extended producer responsibility schemes for producers of textile, textile-related and footwear products. However, they should be complemented by further specific provisions relevant for the textile sector characteristics, in particular, the high share of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) among the producers, the role of social enterprises and the importance of re-use in increasing the sustainability of the textile value chain. They should also be more detailed and harmonised to avoid creating a fragmented market that could have a negative impact on the sector, particularly on micro enterprises and SMEs, for the collection, treatment and recycling, as well as to provide clear incentives for sustainable textile product design and policies and facilitate the markets of secondary raw materials. In this context, Member States are encouraged to consider authorising multiple producer responsibility organisations as competition among such producer responsibility organisations may lead to greater consumer benefits, increase innovation, lower costs, improve collection rates, and increase choices for producers seeking to contract with such organisations.
(19) The household textile and apparel clothing comprise the largest share of Union textile consumption and the biggest contributor to unsustainable patterns of over production and overconsumption. Household textiles and apparel are also the focus of all existing separate collection systems in Member States along with other post-consumer apparel and accessories and footwear that are not primarily composed of textiles. Therefore, the scope of the established extended producer responsibility scheme should cover household textile products and other articles of apparel, clothing accessories and footwear. In order to ensure the legal certainty for the producers on the products subject to the extended producer responsibility, the products in scope should be identified by reference to the Combined Nomenclature codes pursuant to Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/8712.
(20) The textile sector is resource intensive. While, in relation to both the production of raw materials and textiles, most of the pressures and impacts related to the consumption of clothing, footwear and household textiles in the Union occur in third countries, they also affect the Union due to their global impact on climate and the environment. Therefore, preventing, preparing for re-use and recycling textile waste can help reduce the global environmental footprint of the sector, including in the Union. In addition, the current resource-inefficient waste management of textile waste is not in line with the waste hierarchy and leads to environmental harm both in the Union and in third countries, including through greenhouse gas emissions from incineration and landfilling.
(21) The purpose of the extended producer responsibility for textiles, textile-related and footwear products is to ensure a high level of environmental and health protection in the Union, create an economy for collection, sorting, re-use, preparation for re-use and recycling, in particular, fibre-to-fibre recycling, as well as incentives for producers to ensure that their products are designed in respect of circularity principles. The producers of textiles and footwear should finance the costs of collecting, sorting for re-use, preparing for re-use and recycling, and of the recycling and other treatment of collected used and waste textiles and footwear, including unsold consumer products considered waste that were supplied on the territory of the Member States after the entry into force of this amending Directive to ensure that the extended producer responsibility obligations do not apply retroactively and comply with the principle of legal certainty. Those producers should also finance the costs of carrying out compositional surveys of mixed collected municipal waste, support to research and development in sorting and recycling technologies, reporting on separate collection, re-use and other treatment and of providing information to end-users about the impact and sustainable management of textiles.
(22) Producers should be responsible for setting up collection systems for the collection of all used and waste textiles, textile-related and footwear products and ensuring that they are subsequently subject to sorting for re-use, preparation for re-use and recycling to maximise the availability of second-hand clothing and footwear and reduce the volumes for types of waste treatment that are lower in the waste hierarchy. Ensuring that textile products can be and are used and re-used for longer is the most effective way of significantly reducing their impact on the climate and the environment. This should also enable sustainable and circular business models such as re-use, renting and repair, take-back services and second-hand retail creating new green quality jobs and cost-saving opportunities to citizens. Making producers responsible for the waste that their products create is essential to decouple textile waste generation from the growth of the sector. Therefore, the producers should also be responsible for the recycling, in particular, prioritising the scaling up of fibre-to-fibre recycling, and other recovery operations and disposal.
(23) Producers and producer responsibility organisations should finance the scaling up of textile recycling, in particular, fibre-to-fibre recycling enabling the recycling of a broader variety materials and creating a source of raw materials for textile production in the Union. It is also important that the producers support financially research and innovation into technological developments in automatic sorting and composition sorting solutions that allow the separation and recycling of mixed materials and the decontamination of the waste to enable high-quality fibre-to-fibre recycling solutions and the uptake of recycled fibre content. To facilitate compliance with this Directive, Member States should ensure that information and assistance are available to economic operators from the textile sector, especially small and medium enterprises, which should take the form of guidance, financial support, access to finance, specialised management and staff training material, or organisational and technical assistance. If support is financed through state resources, including when wholly financed by contributions imposed by the public authority and levied on the undertakings concerned, it may constitute State aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU; in such cases, Member States have to ensure compliance with State aid rules. The mobilisation of private and public investment in the circularity and decarbonisation of the textile sector are also the focus of several Union funding programmes and roadmaps such as Hubs for Circularity and specific calls under Horizon Europe. It is also necessary to further assess the feasibility of setting Union targets for the recycling of textiles to support and drive technological development and the investments into recycling infrastructure as well as the push for ecodesign for recycling.
(24) Used and waste textiles, textile-related and footwear products should be collected separately from other waste streams, such as metals, paper and cardboard, glass, plastics, wood and bio-waste from 1 January 2025 to maintain their reusability and potential for high-quality recycling. Considering the environmental impact and the loss of materials due to used and waste textiles not being separately collected, and consequently not treated in an environmentally sound manner, the collection network of used and waste textiles, textile-related and footwear products should cover the whole territory of Member States including the outermost regions, be close to the end-user and not target only areas and products where the collection is profitable. The collection network should be organised in cooperation with other actors active in the waste management and re-use sectors, such as municipalities and social enterprises. In view of the significant environmental and climate benefits associated with re-use, the primary and secondary purpose of the collection network should be the collection of re-usable and recyclable textile, textile-related and footwear products accordingly. Since the consumer is not trained to distinguish between re-usable and recyclable items, the collection systems should, including for logistical efficiency purposes, provide for the collection receptacles that collect both used and waste items together. High collection rates would drive high re-use performance and quality recycling in the textile supply chains, boost the uptake of quality secondary raw materials and support the investment planning in the textile sorting and processing infrastructure. In order to verify and improve the effectiveness of the collection network and the information campaigns, regular compositional surveys at least at NUTS 2 level should be carried out on mixed municipal waste collected to determine the amount of waste textiles and footwear therein. In addition, information on the performance of the separate collection systems and the attained annual separate collection rate should be calculated and made publicly available annually by the producer responsibility organisations.
(25) In view of the key role of social enterprises and social economy entities in the existing textile collection systems and their potential to create local, sustainable, participatory and inclusive businesses models and quality jobs in the Union, in line with the objectives of the EU Social Economy Action Plan13, the introduction of extended producer responsibility schemes should maintain and support the activities of social enterprises and social economy entities involved in used textiles management. These entities therefore should be regarded as partners in the separate collection systems supporting the scale-up of re-use and repair and creating quality jobs for all and in particular for vulnerable groups.
(26) Producers and producer responsibility organisations should be actively involved in providing information to end users, in particular consumers, that used and waste textiles and footwear should be collected separately, that collection systems are available and that end-users have an important role in ensuring waste prevention and an environmentally optimal management of textiles waste. This information should include availability of re-use arrangements for textiles and footwear and the environmental benefits of sustainable consumption and the environmental, health and social impacts of the textile apparel industry. The end users should also be informed about their important role in making informed, responsible and sustainable textile consumption choices and ensuring an environmentally optimal management of textile and footwear waste. These information requirements apply in addition to the requirements on the provision of information to end-users in relation to the textile products laid down in the Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation14 and the Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council15. The disclosure of information to all end users should make use of modern information technologies. The information should be provided both by classical means, such as posters both indoors and outdoors and social media campaigns, and by more innovative means, such as electronic access to websites provided by QR codes.
(27) In order to increase textiles’ circularity and environmental sustainability and to reduce the adverse impacts on climate and the environment, Regulation …/... [PO insert the serial number and institutions for the Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation, and complete the footnote]16 will develop binding textile product ecodesign requirements, which will, depending on what the impact assessment will show to be beneficial for increasing textile environmental sustainability, regulate durability, reusability, reparability, and fibre-to-fibre recyclability of textiles, and mandatory recycled fibre content in textiles. It will also regulate the presence of substances of concern to allow their minimisation and tracking in view of reducing waste generation and improving recycling, as well as the prevention and reduction of synthetic fibres shed into the environment to significantly reduce microplastic release. At the same time, modulation of extended producer responsibility fees is an effective economic instrument to incentivise more sustainable textile design leading to improved circular design. In order to provide a strong incentive for ecodesign while taking into account the objectives of the internal market and the composition of the textile sector which is primarily composed of SMEs, it is necessary to harmonise criteria for the modulation of extended producer responsibility fees based on the most relevant ecodesign parameters to enable the treatment of textiles in line with the waste hierarchy. The fee modulation according to the ecodesign criteria should be based on the Ecodesign requirements and their measurement methodologies that are adopted pursuant to the Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation for textile products or to other Union law establishing harmonized sustainability criteria and measurement methods for textile products and only where the latter are adopted. It is appropriate to empower the Commission to adopt harmonised rules for the fee modulation to ensure the alignment of the fee modulation criteria with those product requirements.
(28) In order to monitor that producers meet their obligations relating to their financial, and organisational obligations to ensuring the management of used and waste textile, textile-related and footwear products they make available on the market for the first time within the territory of a Member State, it is necessary that a register of producers is established and managed by each Member State and that producers should be obliged to register. The registration requirements and format should be harmonised across the Union to the greatest extent possible so as to facilitate registration in particular where producers make textile, textile-related and footwear products available on the market for the first time in different Member States. The information in the register should be accessible to those entities that play a role in the verification of the compliance with the extended producer responsibility obligations and their enforcement.
(29) Since the textile sector is 99% comprised of small and medium sized enterprises, the implementation of an extended producer responsibility scheme for textiles, textile-related and footwear products should aim to reduce as much as possible administrative burdens. Therefore, the fulfilment of the extended producer responsibilities should be exercised collectively by means of producer responsibility organisations taking up the responsibility on their behalf. Producer responsibility organisations should be subject to authorisation by Member States and should document, inter alia, that they have the financial means to cover the costs entailed by the extended producer responsibility and that they fulfil that responsibility.
(30) Article 30(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council17 obliges certain providers of online platforms allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with producers offering textile, textile-related and footwear products to consumers located in the Union, prior to allowing a producer to use its services, to obtain certain identification information from that producer and a self-certification by the producer committing to only offer products or services that comply with the applicable rules of Union law. In order to ensure the effective enforcement of the extended producer responsibility obligations, it should be specified that providers of online platforms falling within the scope of Chapter 3, Section 4, of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 should obtain from those producers information on the registration in the textile producer register that Member State are obliged to set up pursuant to this Directive, as well as the registration number(s) of the producer in that register, and a self-certification by the producer committing itself to only offer textile, textile-related and footwear products to which the extended producer responsibility requirements laid down by this Directive apply. The rules on enforcement laid down in Chapter IV of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 apply to providers of such platforms in relation to these traceability rules.
(31) In order to ensure the treatment of textiles in line with the waste hierarchy set out in Directive 2008/98/EC, producer responsibility organisations should ensure that all separately collected textiles and footwear are subject to sorting operations that generate both items that are fit for re-use meeting the needs of the receiving second-hand textile and the recycling feedstock markets in the Union and globally. In view of the greater environmental benefits associated with extending the lifetime of textiles, re-use should be the main objective of the sorting operations followed by sorting for recycling where the items are professionally assessed as not re-useable. These sorting requirements should be developed by the Commission as a priority as part of the harmonised Union end-of-waste criteria for re-useable textiles and recycled textiles, including on initial sorting that may take place at the collection point. Such harmonised criteria should bring about consistency and high quality in the collected fractions as well as in material flows for sorting, waste recovery operations and secondary raw materials across borders which in turn should facilitate the scaling up re-use and recycling value chains. Used clothes professionally assessed as fit for re-use by the re-use operators or social enterprises and social economy entities at the collection point from end-users should not be considered waste. In case re-use or recycling is not technically possible, the waste hierarchy should still be applied, avoiding landfilling where possible, in particular of biodegradable textiles that are a source of methane emissions, and applying energy recovery when incineration is applied.
(32) Exports of used and waste textiles outside the EU have been steadily increasing with exports representing the greatest share of the re-use market for post-consumer textiles generated in the EU. In view of the significant increase of the collected textile waste after the introduction of separate collection by 2025 it is important to strengthen the efforts to combat illegal shipments of waste to third countries disguised as non-waste for the purpose of ensuring high environmental protection. Building on Regulation …/… [P.O. insert the institutions and serial number, and complete the footnote for the Regulation on the Shipment of waste]18 and in view of the objective to ensure the sustainable management of post-consumer textiles and tackle illegal shipments of waste, it should be provided that all separately collected used textiles, textile-related and footwear products undergo a sorting operation prior to their shipment. Furthermore, it should be provided that all separately collected used textile, textile-related and footwear items are regarded as waste and subject to Union waste legislation, including on the shipments of waste, until they have undergone a sorting operation by a trained sorting for re-use and recycling operator. The sorting should be carried out in accordance with the harmonised sorting requirements that deliver high quality re-usable fraction that meet the needs of the receiving second hand textile markets in the EU and globally and by establishing criteria to distinguish between used goods and waste. Shipments of used textiles, textile-related and footwear products should be accompanied by information demonstrating that those items are the output of a sorting or a preparing for re-use operation and that the items are suitable for re-use.
(33) In order for Member States to achieve the targets set out in this Directive, Member States should revise their food waste prevention programmes to include new measures, involving multiple partners from the public and private sectors, with coordinated actions tailored to address specific hotspots as well as attitudes and behaviours that lead to food waste. In the preparation of these programmes, Member States could draw inspiration from the recommendations produced by the Citizens’ Panel on Food Waste.
(34) Clear accountability and governance of food waste prevention measures are essential to ensure effective coordination of action to drive change and reach the targets set out in this Directive. Due to the shared agenda amongst many authorities and the variety of stakeholders engaged in the fight against food waste in Member States, there is a need for a designated competent authority in charge of overall coordination of actions at national level.
(35) The granularity of the information on post-consumer municipal textiles management at Union level should be improved to more effectively monitor the re-use of products, including of re-use and preparation for re-use of textiles, including in view of the potential setting of the performance targets in the future. Re-use and preparation for re-use data represent key data flows for the monitoring of the decoupling of waste generation from economic growth and the transition towards a sustainable, inclusive and circular economy. Therefore, these data flows should be managed by the European Environmental Agency.
(36) The empowerment to adopt delegated acts set out in Article 9(8) of Directive 2008/98/EC as regards a common methodology and minimum quality requirements for the uniform measurement of levels of food waste should be moved, with minor adaptations, to a new Article that deals specifically with prevention of food waste generation.
(37) In order to bring the Combined Nomenclature codes listed in Directive 2008/98/EC in line with the codes listed in Annex 1 to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amendments to Annex IVc to Directive 2008/98/EC. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making. In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States' experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.
(38) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of Directive 2008/98/EC, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission concerning a harmonised format for registration in the register based on the information requirements set out in Article 22b(4), fee modulation criteria for the application of Article 22c(3), point (a), and a methodology for the calculation and verification of the separate collection rate referred to in Article 22c(6), point (c). Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council19.
(39) Directive 2008/98/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.
(40) Since the objectives of this Directive, namely to improve the environmental sustainability of food and textile waste management and to ensure the free movement of used and waste textiles in the internal market, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, only be achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. 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 on subsidiarity.