Transcript EU Waste Legislation - Dr Caroline Jackson

Reflections on European Waste
Management
Dr Caroline Jackson
[email protected]
The EU and environment policy
• Has its origins in Council Declaration of October
1972, leading to 1st Environmental Action
Programme, adopted in 1973
• Environment policy now one of the most
constitutionally-advanced of the EU’s policy
sectors. It is already ‘post Lisbon’.
• National Parliaments are effectively subordinated:
MEPs have real power
• Two aspects of the legislative process are
particularly vital: co-decision and comitology
Characteristics of EU waste law
• Can be regulations (directly applicable) but mainly
take the form of directives: ends prescribed but
means of getting there left to Member States
• This means that directives may contain precise
timetables and quantitative targets, e.g. the targets
in the Landfill Directive.
• Because of the latitude they allow, directives are
difficult for the Commission to check on in order
to ensure uniform compliance.
Co-decision and its problems
• Co-decision introduced through the Maastricht
Treaty: now the normal legislative procedure for
the adoption of new EU law
• Parliament and Council are co-legislators,
ultimately reaching agreement on joint text
through the ‘conciliation committee’. In practice
differences often resolved at an earlier stage
• Advantage? More efficient decision-taking
• Disadvantage? Extremely difficult for outsiders to
penetrate the ‘trilogues’ and internal meetings
• Lisbon Treaty extends it to new areas (CAP)
What does comitology mean?
• ‘Comitology’ refers to the system of committees
operated by the Commission in implementing EU
law
• Recent waste directives use the ‘Regulatory
Procedure With Scrutiny’ set up in 2006
• A regulatory committee is composed of Member
State representatives chaired by the Commission
• MEPs (and the Council) can object: if so, the
Commission cannot adopt the proposal and may
start again
What’s wrong with comitology?
• It’s another ‘efficient’ process that is not
democratic or transparent
• Outsiders find it extremely difficult to
follow what is happening
• MEPs are overwhelmed by the information
they receive on proposals going through
Regulatory Committees and have been very
reluctant to follow these up
EU waste laws so far
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Packaging waste (1994)
Landfill (1999)
End of Life Vehicles (2000)
WEEE (2003)
Hazardous Waste (1991 and 1994)
Incineration of Waste (2000)
Batteries (2001)
Waste Shipments Regulation (2006)
Waste Framework Directive (2008)
The current EU agenda
• Overseeing implementation of the landfill
directive, and subsequent sectoral laws
• Considering a possible biodegradeable
waste (composting) directive
• Examining possible EU waste inspectorate
• Fitting achievement of climate change
carbon reduction goals into existing policies
Two key directives
The Landfill Directive(1999)
The Waste Framework Directive
(2008)
The Landfill Directive
• Contained stiff reduction targets for countries with
high landfill percentages in late 1990s: BMW to
landfill must reduce to 75% of that produced in 1995
by 2010; 50% by 2013 and 35% by 2020
• Did not specify alternative waste disposal
• Some countries paralysed into indecision on how
to address the directive: in 2008 the Commission
took 14 countries to ECJ for failure to implement it
• ‘Thousands’ of illegal landfills persist in France
and Italy
The Waste Framework Directive
• Originated in need to clarify and up-date
various key definitions
• Also addressed mix-up over what is
‘disposal’ and what is ‘recovery’ following
contradictory European Court of Justice
judgements
• But transformed and enlarged in scope by
political will of the European Parliament
Recycling targets in the Waste
Framework Directive
By 2020, the targets are ‘ preparation for re-use and
recycling of :
• Minimum 50% by weight of at least paper, metal,
plastic and glass from household and possibly
other origins as far as these waste streams are
similar to waste from households
• Minimum 70% by weight of non-hazardous
construction and demolition waste’
Waste prevention
• MS to establish waste prevention programmes by
12 December 2013 setting out prevention
objectives and measures, and determining
indicators and qualitative and quantitative
benchmarks or targets for waste prevention
• Commission to produce by end of 2011 a report
on the evolution of waste generation and scope for
waste prevention, and an action plan,
concentrating on changing consumption patterns
• By end of 2014 the Commission to set waste
prevention and decoupling objectives for 2020
Separate collection?
• Directive says ‘MS shall take measures to promote
high quality recycling’
• ‘ waste shall be collected separately if technically,
environmentally and economically practicable and
shall not be mixed with other waste or other
material with different properties’
• By 2015 separate collection shall be set up for at
least paper, metal, plastic and glass
Incineration – recovery or disposal?
• Annex II of the WFD contains a mathematical formula
defining energy efficiency levels for EfW plants that will
qualify as recovery operations
• Recovery plants can import waste for treatment and might
get a better public reception
• Commission may develop guidelines for interpretation of
definitions of recovery and disposal
• Formula may be varied to take account of climatic
conditions
• MEPs will be engaged in the review process via
‘regulatory procedure with scrutiny’
• Commission will review implementation after 6 years
Signpost to a bio waste directive?
• MS to take measures to encourage separate
collection of bio-waste with a view to the
composting and digestion of bio-waste
• Commission to assess bio waste management
‘with a view to submitting a proposal if
appropriate’
• Commission published Green Paper on bio waste
on 3 December 2008 asking for comments on 8
questions [COM (2008) 811 final]
What happens next in Brussels?
• Commission developing end of waste criteria,
concentrating on scrap metal (for end of 2009) ,
paper and glass (for early 2010)
• Commission intends taking decision on
calculation rules related to recycling targets before
end of 2010. It has clarified that the 50% is an
overall target
• Commission developing guidelines and indicators
on waste prevention
The problem of poor compliance
• More than 20% of Commission enforcement
dossiers concern environment laws
• Investigation and action in the ECJ can take years
• No dedicated force to investigate poor compliance
– but Commission is looking at possibility of a
waste inspectorate
• How to make the punishment fit the crime? Does
fining poor countries make sense?
• What is the role of the European Environment
Agency?
Climate change and the
EU waste sector
• Carbon reduction targets and undertakings now
have a bearing on waste policy options
• The Commission is planning to revise the thematic
strategy on waste and recycling, probably
emphasising the need to ‘design out waste’ in
future – but this is a long term solution
• We need a clear idea of the likely carbon impact
of various methods of waste management
Thoughts for the future
• A new round of EU enlargement will increase the
tendency to settle the terms of new legislation by
off-stage deals
• The existing EU states need to be much tougher
on environmental points in negotiations with
candidate countries
• MEPs need to be set to work on impact
assessment; enforcement and better scrutiny of the
regulatory committees. Over to you!!