Brussels, 03/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European regions would like to have the right of scrutiny over the transport of waste. They believe that European rules should be tightened up in this area because 25% of European waste products end up in developing countries by way of illegal shipments. On Thursday 30 January, members of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) adopted a recommendation by Paula Baker (ALDE, United Kingdom) on this issue at their plenary session.
Baker stated that, “when you see what the impact the shipping of illegal waste can have on communities and countries, you can only feel outraged”. She believes that tightening up European legislation would be a first step. In her recommendation she therefore supports the European Commission's proposed review of the regulation on waste shipments and a common European definition for obligatory content. The CoR is also particularly supportive of the idea of introducing a “single window” that makes all inspections available to the relevant authorities and that the local and regional authorities are allowed to ask for proof from shipments about where the waste will end up and that information on end destination be made public. The CoR is also proposing to set up the European database for the public authorities, so that they can introduce more stringent controls of these shipments. (MD/transl.fl)