EU takes position on waste shipments revision

Archiv – Governments are about to approve their first-reading position on a revision of the EU’s waste shipments regulation.Governments are about to approve their first-reading position on a revision of the EU’s waste shipments regulation. The text of a common position released by the Council of Ministers should be approved later this month, thus clearing the way for the second reading to begin.
The goal of the revision is to bring the decade-old regulation into line with more recent international agreements. A key issue for member states has been so-called ’eco-dumping’ – the risk of shipments being exported to exploit lower treatment standards elsewhere. The draft common position gives authorities in the despatching member state more power to block shipments they think will not be handled to an equivalent standard in the importing country. However, in response to concerns surrounding possible abuse of this power, despatch authorities will be required to explain much earlier and more clearly the grounds for blocking exports, with reference to national legislation.
Another disagreement has centred on whether different streams of non-hazardous ’green’ waste should be classified as ’amber’ waste, and thus be subject to stricter controls. In this regard, the council has opted to decide gradually on a case-by-case basis, with different mixtures to be classed as green or amber through an EU committee procedure.
The European Parliament will now reconsider the proposed package of measures. Among its own more radical first-reading proposals, it called for outright bans on many types of shipment but this notion is thought unlikely to survive a second reading.