Brussels, 17/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - Last week the European Commission began infringement procedures against nine Member States not fully complying with Community legislation on the treatment of waste oils. Austria, Ireland, France, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are to receive letters of formal notice (first step in the infringement procedure under Article 226 of the Treaty), for the incorrect transposition, into domestic legislation, of Directive 75/439/EEC, amended by Directive 87/101/EEC. The Commission, notably, accuses all these States of failing to comply with their obligation to ensure that waste oils - lubricant oils for vehicles, oils for various types of engines, gearboxes, etc. - are regenerated rather than disposed of.
France, Denmark, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Finland are targeted for this single shortcoming.
National legislation of the other Member States comprise these other shortcomings: Austria: non-respect of emission limit values, the obligation to ensure that periodic inspections are carried out and that trends in technological developments are examined with a view to revising, where necessary, permits granted under the directive; Ireland: inadequate level collection of oil wastes, failure in its obligation to launch a public awareness campaign to ensure that waste oils are appropriately stored and collected, failure to set emission limit values for oil waste incineration plants; Sweden: non-compliance with the obligation, for any company producing, collecting or disposing of more than a given quantity of waste oils per year to keep detailed records: - the Netherlands: non-compliance with the provisions concerning collection and non-compliance of emission value limits applicable to incineration plants.
Commenting on the Commission's decision to pursue the incriminated Member States, Margot Wallstrom, Commissioner for the environment, declared in a press release: "The priority for the regeneration of waste oils given by the directive is a key step in ensuring that we use our resources sustainably. Member States signed up to this 14 years ago. It is high time they respected their own pledges. I have said many times that I want to place emphasis on ensuring that existing environmental legislation is enforced properly rather than on creating new environmental legislation."
The Waste Oil Directive is designed to create a harmonized system for the collection, treatment, storage and disposal o waste oils so as to protect the environment and human health against the harmful effects of these activities. Waste oils are hazardous as they are carcinogenic substances. Untreated, they are not only a threat for aquatic life if they end up n rivers, lakes and streams (one litre of waste oil can contaminate up to one million litres of drinking water), but also contaminate soils.
Under the directive, Member states are held to set up a system allowing for the collection of oil wastes and clean them up in regeneration plants through different chemical and physical processes (it is possible to clean base oils to be blended with fresh additives and used again).