Brussels, 30/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - Last week, the European Commission decided to refer Italy to the Court of Justice for not having correctly transposed the Framework-Directive on waste into national legislation. It has also decided to send reasoned opinions (second warning) to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Austria for non-compliance with the same directive.
The Community has a common definition of the concept of waste through the Framework-Directive. In addition, the European catalogue of waste sets out a list f different categories of waste. On the basis of this common definition, the Directive determines the main obligations for Member States concerning the treatment of waste and grants authorisation for eradication and inspections and transport control.
The Commission has decided to haul Italy before the Court of Justice for not having correctly transposed the Directive. The Directive provides for exemptions being granted concerning the obligation regarding authorisations only under certain conditions. The Commission considers that the dispensations provided for by Italian law does not respect these. In addition, the Italian legislation does not correctly implement the codes of the European catalogue on waste for identifying different waste. These problems were put to the Italian authorities in a reasoned opinion (second written warning) in April 2001, but the Italian authorities provided no follow-up. Which explains last Thursday's decision.
In addition, the United Kingdom has not correctly transposed several Articles of the Framework-Directive into national legislation. It is, notably, a question of the definition of waste, due to the fact that British legislation provides for exemptions to the field of application controls imposed by the Directive that exceed those granted under the directive, and the incomplete transposition of the directive in Gibraltar and Northern Ireland relating to transport controls. The Commission therefore decided to send a reasoned opinion to London.
Austria will receive a reasoned opinion for not having correctly transposed definitions of the terms "valorisation" and "eradication" into national legislation. The Commission also considers that the country has not correctly transposed the obligation provided for by the Framework-Directive demanding regular inspections of waste treatment plants.
Finally, a reasoned opinion will be sent to Ireland, which does not control in an appropriate manner private and local operations of the eradication of unauthorised waste, and which does not have adequate legislation concerning the collection. Complaints have revealed that private waste treatment operations have been conducted without the approval in several parts of the country. Likewise, many discharges controlled by local authorities are still used without permits, and the system for granting permits applied by the Irish environmental protection agency do not adequately protect areas that present a particular interest. The Commission considers that Ireland has not taken all the necessary measures to ensure the safe eradication of waste and to banned uncontrolled eradication, that it has not set up an integrated and adequate network of waste eradication plants, that it does not demand appropriate authorisations and permits, that it does not organise inspections and that it does not demand the holding of records of waste to avoid unauthorised storage and eradication operations.