The EU regulation that will better combat persistent organic pollutants - pollutants that are highly toxic to health and the environment - was formally adopted by EU environment ministers on Monday 24 October without debate.
The text is the result of the agreement reached in June with the European Parliament to update Regulation (EU) 2019/1021, the so-called ‘POPs’ Regulation, which transposes the Stockholm Convention (see EUROPE 12976/1).
By amending Annexes IV and V of this regulation, chemical substances are added to the list of POPs and the concentration values for these POPs in waste are tightened. The regulation was adopted by qualified majority. Hungary voted against.
This regulation will also help to promote the circular economy. In addition, the Commission will assess whether EU waste legislation should be amended to establish whether waste containing POPs exceeding the limit values in Annex IV should be classified as hazardous.
“This is an important step to protect our citizens and the environment. Many of these substances have brought us benefits in the past, but we were not paying enough attention to how harmful they can be. I am glad the EU leads by example and decided to tighten their limits in the recycling phase”, commented the Czech Minister for the Environment, Anna Hubáčková, President-in-Office of the Environment Council of the EU.
For the text of the new regulation: https://aeur.eu/f/3re (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)