Brussels, 02/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Environment council meeting on Monday evening under the chairmanship of Martin Cullen held a fruitful political debate on the draft regulation (amending regulation 93/259/EC) to strengthen inspection procedures for waste transfers within the EU and leaving it, with a view to transposing the Basle Convention on cross-border movements of hazardous waste, into Community law. This debate, guided by a presidency questionnaire, allowed for a clarification of Member States' positions on a paper which had already been examined by the Parliament in first reading (EUROPE 22 November 2003) but which was still not ready for facilitating a common Council position.
Here are the orientations attained on the three questions posed by ministers: 1) Will Member States have to have authorisation for opposing waste transfer, in order to avoid eco-dumping in the processing of this waste? Delegations replied, yes, considering that their national standards in environmental protection should be applies as long as there are no Community standards but they judged that such standards would be indispensable in the long term. 2) How should so-called "green waste" be treated, which is individually recognised as being non-dangerous but if it is found in a combination, even in a transfer, could prove dangerous? Delegations unanimously judged it inopportune to talk about this mix as harmless and came out in favour of two alternative solutions: either the OECD general rule is applied to green waste, which authorises their transfer if they are not dangerous to the environment and plans for their ban on a case-by-case basis if they are seen as environmentally dangerous and categorised as such. 3) Should green waste, the transfer of which is not legal, be sent back to the organisation responsible for transferring it, as the regulation demands for all other illegal transfers of illegal and dangerous waste? This question provoked a number of other questions (sending back could cost more than treating it on arrival and who would pay for the return of the transfer?). Answers were much more qualified but delegations reached an agreement for making the different parties responsible (sender, transporter and receiving body).
These orientations from the Council will guide the Member States in their continued work of the regulation being proposed.