Brussels, 14/08/2001 (Agence Europe) - On 1 August, the European Commission decided to refer Germany to the Court of Justice, especially as it has not submitted plans, guidelines and summaries concerning PCB containing equipment, as required under the Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB/PCT) Directive. Austria has received a Reasoned Opinion for the same reasons.
The Commission sent Germany a Reasoned Opinion on 21 December 2000. In response, Germany provided a summary, but incomplete, as it does not contain summarised data on the disposal methods planned by holders. Germany pointed out that it had adopted a plan for the disposal of the inventoried equipment, at regional level, but the plan was not submitted and the document that the Commission received failed to give details of how the PCB waste in question will be decontaminated or disposed of in practice.
The Austrian authorities were late in submitting the PCB waste plans and guidelines required by the Directive, and failed to fully transpose it into national law. For example, the obligation to prohibit the separation of PCBs from other substances for the purpose of reusing them and the obligation to transfer used PCBs and equipment containing PCBs to licensed undertakings, were not respected. Austria replied to the letter of formal warning by submitting legislative proposals that oblige users of certain electrical equipment to provide the Ministry of the Environment with an inventory of their equipment by the end of 1996 at the latest. On assessment of this response, the Commission concluded that some deficiencies still remained. Furthermore, Austria has recently submitted an inventory which is not complete since information is missing about the quantity of PCBs contained and about dates and types of treatment.