Abstract: Procedure for the manufacture of carboxylated ethylene polymer blends, in which in a 1st step, in a fluid mixing reactor, to 100 pbw of a particulate ethylene polymer—chosen from among ethylene homopolymers (HDPE, LDPE) and/or linear ethylene copolymers with 2 to ?20 wt.-% polymerized-in C3?12-olefin units (LLDPE, EOP), with a melt-flow rate MFR (190° C./2.16 kg)?20 g/10 min—are added 0.05-15 pbw of a ?,?-ethylenically unsaturated mono and/or dicarboxylic acid or its anhydride (carboxyl monomer), or a monomer mixture containing at least one carboxyl monomer and 0.01-10 pbw of a radical initiator or initiator mixture, and graft-polymerizing at reaction temperatures of 30-120° C., over a reaction time of 5-120 min and subsequently, in a 2nd step, reacting a mixture continuously fed into a reaction extruder of 100 pbw of the modified ethylene polymer obtained in the 1st solid phase step, 150-4,000 pbw of an ethylene polymer or polymer blend with a melt flow rate MFR (190° C., 2.