Forever chemicals and single-use plastics: What the EU’s new rules mean for Cyprus

By Antonia Christou As Cyprus handed back the rotating presidency of the EU Council on June 30, one of its more consequential environmental marks is also one of its least publicised. In February 2026, under the Cypriot presidency, the Council signed off on a long-stalled directive that, for the first time, brings a whole group of PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals”, under EU pollution limits for surface water and, for groundwater, regulates them at all; the European Parliament confirmed the deal weeks later. Agriculture and Environment Minister Maria Panayiotou called water quality “an utmost priority” of the presidency. For an island whose economy and identity are bound to the sea, that should be more than a slogan. But the PFAS story does not end at the water’s edge, and the headline flatters the substance. Two pieces of EU law are about to reshape daily life in Cyprus, and both come with big exceptions. PFAS and the packaging ban arriving in August PFAS are a large family of synthetic chemicals prized for resisting grease, water and stains. That same durability is the problem: they barely break down, accumulating in soil, water, food and human bodies over decades. Regulators link long-term exposure to some of them with cancer, genetic damage, harm to reproduction and damage to internal organs. Roughly 46 per cent of Europe’s surface waters and a quarter of its groundwater already fail to meet “good chemical status.” The most immediate change is the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (EU 2025/40, the PPWR). Because it is a regulation rather than a directive, it applies automatically across every member state: there is no need to be transposed into Cypriot law. From August 12, 2026, food-contact packaging cannot be placed on the EU market if it contains PFAS at or above set limits, with no grace period to clear old stock. In practice that reaches producers, importers, supermarkets, bakeries, cafés, delivery operators, hotels and catering. Reassurances that packaging is “food grade” will no longer do; businesses will need to demonstrate compliance through supplier documentation. The bigger shift and the exceptions The PPWR goes after more than just one chemical; it targets the throwaway model itself. From February 12, 2027, take-away places must let customers fill their own cup, at the same price as a disposable. From February 12, 2028, they must also offer a reusable option through a return or deposit system. And from January 1, 2030, single-use plastic packaging for food and drink consumed on the premises is banned. That is the headline. The exemptions are where it softens. The 2028 reusable-packaging rule does not apply to micro-enterprises, i.e. businesses with fewer than ten staff and turnover or assets under €2 million. That sounds like a small exception until you look at Cyprus specifically, where cafés, kiosks, bars and takeaways are overwhelmingly micro-enterprises. In practice, the exemption lifts the reusable-packaging duty off many of the outlets most responsible for single-use cup waste. The businesses big enough to fall under the rule are mainly the hotels and the chains. The many small independents that sell most of the cups are not, so the exemption lets them off. The other new measures bend too. The 2030 on-premises ban excuses venues with no access to drinking water. And the target of putting 10 per cent of products in reusable form is only something businesses are asked to “endeavour” to do, not a firm requirement. Rules are only as good as their enforcement, and Cyprus’ record gives little comfort. Cyprus was more than a year late transposing the 2019 Single-Use Plastics Directive, passing its law only in 2022 under the threat of EU infringement action, after MPs granted repeated extensions so businesses could sell off their stock. Charalampos Theopemptou, the former Greens MP and environmentalist, noted at the time that the earlier plastic-bag law had been rushed through days before a court appearance and ended up riddled “with many loopholes” and warned that the plastics directive was heading the same way. The warning held up. In a 2024 EU-wide assessment, the Rethink Plastic alliance and Seas at Risk named Cyprus among Europe’s “enforcement laggards,” where banned items such as plastic straws and cutlery are still openly sold or handed out free in takeaway restaurants. A regulation like the PPWR removes one familiar excuse: there is no transposition to stall, but enforcement still falls to national authorities, and on single-use plastics those authorities have repeatedly looked the other way. A milestone, softened The water directive that Cyprus helped finalise deserves the same scrutiny. During negotiations, member states aligned PFAS limits with existing drinking-water thresholds, rather than the stricter levels scientists had urged, weakened a proposed cap on pesticide mixtures and pushed full compliance out to 2039 and, with extensions, to 2045. Listing a chemical is not the same as getting it out of the water, and national transposition is due only by December 2027. For an island that lives off clean water and a living coastline, the direction of travel is right. But direction is not delivery. On current form, the risk is not that Cyprus lacks the rules, it actually has them in abundance, but that it treats them, once again, as paperwork to be managed rather than pollution to be stopped. Antonia Christou is the President of the Board of Friends of the Earth Cyprus