During the Brexit campaign in 2016, Boris Johnson loved to mock European legislation which, he claimed – wrongly, almost always – would do things such as ban "bendy" bananas and bunches of more than three bananas. In France, at the same time, former president Nicolas Sarkozy also denounced the European Union for being too technocratic, accusing it of regulating the "curve" of cucumbers, in reference to a regulation that had in fact been abandoned in July 2009.

But recently, a few months ahead of the European elections in June 2024, the EU gave fuel to those who vilify the standards produced in Brussels. The Commission's November 2022 proposal for a regulation on packaging, which imposes recycling targets, had the direct consequence of threatening the wooden boxes that Camembert cheese is sold in. "If you want to caricature Europe before the elections, start bothering Camembert producers and their wooden packaging... It makes everyone jump!" said French Junior Minister for European Affairs Laurence Boone, last week.

Pascal Canfin, the president of the European Parliament's Environment Committee, said the decried consequence was "an oversight from the Commission, a hole in the text," and in no way came from a desire to attack the boxes used not only for the cheesy likes of Camembert, Gorgonzola, and Mont d'Or, but also for oysters and strawberries. The Commission confirmed this: "Discussions are underway to accommodate the specific issue of Camembert," said a spokesperson.

With MEPs due to debate the offending text in Strasbourg on Tuesday, November 21, and voting on it the following day, French representatives raced to fix the problem. The liberals at Renew came up with an amendment calling on the Commission to make a proposal by 2028 for wood and wax packaging (such as the one used for Babybel), which, given their small individual volumes, currently have no specific recycling channel.

The amendment "should receive a large majority," said Canfin, who did not want to ask for a derogation from the future European regulation, so as not to weaken the spirit of the law by "opening a Pandora's box" to all sectors seeking to escape the new rules.

Conservative MEPs François-Xavier Bellamy and Arnaud Danjean of the Les Républicains party, as well as Catherine Griset of the far-right Rassemblement National, who are highly critical of the Commission's text and call for numerous derogations, have said they want wooden packaging to be exempted altogether.

In the end, said a person close to the negotiations, "the philosophy of the Renew amendment is expected to be retained." The member states, which are expected to adopt their position on the draft regulation on December 18, ahead of negotiations with the European Parliament, will be keen to avoid a repeat of the Camembert box controversy. But there's no doubt that what was perceived as an attack on one of France's emblematic cheeses will be widely caricatured during the European election campaign.