Brussels, 19/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European directive aimed at better management of mining waste within the EU by strengthening the provisions of the current directive 2004/35/EC has been adopted. On Thursday, the European Parliament in Strasbourg will confirm the common text resulting from EP/Council conciliation on a text that draws lessons from the series of accidents that occurred in Europe, such as cyanide pollution of the Danube (Baia Mare, Romania, in 2000) or the heavy metal pollution in Andalusia in 1998 (for the results of conciliation see EUROPE 9079). The new directive will minimise the dangerous impact that mining waste has on the environment and human health, and will ensure greater safety of extraction sites as well as the responsibility of operators for possible harm to the environment caused by their activities. Operators will thus be under an obligation to provide adequate financial guarantees to ensure the rehabilitation of polluted land, in addition to extraction sites strictly speaking. Member States will have two years in which to transpose the provisions of the new legislation into their national law.
Jonas Sjöstedt (GUE/NGL, Sweden), Rapporteur, welcomes this move forward. This new legislation, he commented, will put an end to dangerous sites with high cyanide concentration and “reduce the risk of leaks from mines, both from those in use today and from old closed-down sites. (…) I am also pleased that the applicant states, Romania and Bulgaria, have already promised to follow the legislation from day one of their membership. They have also said that they will not apply for derogations from the directive”.