Brussels, 15/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 14 March, the Environment Council in Brussels reached a first-reading political agreement on recasting Directive 2002/96 on waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE). This was not, however, an easy thing to achieve. It took a great deal of stubbornness on the part of the Hungarian Presidency and the convening of an extraordinary meeting of the Council working group during the session to reach a point when delegations agreed on the scope of the text and the flexibility required to satisfy the new member states, which feared they might be unable to meet the ambitious objectives for compulsory waste collection and recycling within the time set.
The text of the agreement is based on a Presidency compromise. Ministers “opened” the scope of the law to cover in principle all electric and electronic equipment six years from entry into force of the recast (i.e. 2018). Photovoltaic panels will be immediately included and will have to be separately collected and properly treated. The Commission may also propose changes to the scope of the text after an impact analysis.
The annual collection objective for each member state (45% of the average weight of electric and electronic equipment placed on their national markets) would come into application four years after entry into force of the revised directive, probably in 2016. Four years later, i.e. in 2020, member states should reach a collection rate of 65% but the new member states (Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia), in which consumers use fewer electronic devices, will benefit from a certain amount of flexibility for achieving targets. For these states, the objective to be reached will be from 40-45% by 2016 and then 65% by 2022 at the latest.
Sandor Fazekas, who chaired the session, had warned before the agreement was reached that: “this is the first reading. The chances of reaching a compromise will not be greater in June”. His warning was heeded. The political agreement has still to be consolidated to allow adoption, without debate, of a Council common position that will open the way to second reading in Parliament.
European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik took the view that it is necessary to use this kind of waste as “a resource and not as a burden” to be cast off. Also, revision of the WEEE directive is “a test dossier to see if the EU is able to take the objective of more effective use of resources seriously”. (A.N./transl.jl)