Brussels, 30/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - Approving the report by Dorette Corbey (PES, NL) on the amended directive on packaging and packaging waste, the European Parliament approved, on Thursday, the common text resulting from EP/Council conciliation procedure in December. As the Council had done the same on 26 January by qualified majority (Austria and the Netherlands voted against), the directive has now been formally adopted.
We recall that the new directive amends Directive 94/62/EC, mainly by clarifying the definition of packaging with illustrative examples and by reviewing upward targets for the recovery and recycling of packaging and packaging waste. The text specifies that waste incineration in incineration plants for energy recovery may be considered as a contribution to achieving the targets set out in the directive, which will give Member States the choice to accomplish their aims by using these two practices in full legality. This precision provides an immediate albeit partial response to questions raised by the various interpretations of the notion of recovery in the 1994 directive (the Court of Justice had concluded in both rulings that waste incineration with energy recovery does not constitute recovery if that is not the main purpose of the operation). The Parliament, Council and Commission have nonetheless pledged (in a declaration) to review the issue in detail, and if necessary review the directive.
Thus, by 31 December 2008 at the latest, 60% minimum in waste volume should be recovered or incinerated in incineration plants with energy recovery, and between a minimum of 55% and a maximum of 80% of the weight of such waste should be recycled.
Member States are given the possibility of transposing certain provisions through voluntary agreement between the relevant authorities and economic sectors concerned. Derogations are foreseen until 2011 for certain countries (Greece, Ireland and Portugal) and extend from 2012 and 2015 for new acceding countries (2012 for Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia, 2013 for Malta, 2014 for Poland and 2015 for Latvia).