Brussels, 15/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's environment committee, chaired by Jo Leinen (S&D, Germany) is demanding that, in future, phosphates be banned not only from washing powders, as proposed by the European Commission as from 2013, but also from detergents for automatic dishwashers as from January 2015.
On 14 June in Brussels, MEPs' views on this issue were crystal clear when they adopted the report by Bill Newton Dunn (ALDE, United Kingdom) on the proposal to amend European legislation (EC 648/2004) to ban the use of phosphates in washing powders. The objective is to reduce the quantity of phosphates in European wastewater (EUROPE 10250).
The rapporteur justified the extension of the ban as being in the interests of the environment, the internal market and innovation (EUROPE 10364).
The Greens/EFA Group at the Parliament also welcomed this vote. The shadow rapporteur, Carl Schlyter (Greens, Sweden) said that “banning phosphates in all household detergents is an important step in getting rid of these substances and the negative impact they can have on water resources and the environment in general in the context of eutrophication”.
His colleague, Bas Eickhout (Greens, the Netherlands), another shadow rapporteur, drove home the message even further and affirmed that there were viable alternative solutions without phosphates in washing powders and dishwasher detergents. He said that the ban was a win-win solution and he added that there would be other positive effects such as the reduction of phosphate dependency, which would help reduce costs for purifying water. (A.N./transl.fl)