Brussels, 08/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - Parliament's environment committee is calling for a ban on exports and imports of mercury into the EU (from 1 December 2010 for exports and from 1 July 2010 for imports). It also sets stricter rules for storage of this heavy metal that is highly toxic for human health and for the environment.
Taking a stance at first reading on the proposal for a regulation of October 2006 which gives concrete substance to the EU's general strategy aimed at reducing overall exposure to mercury, the members of the parliamentary committee adopted, on 3 May, the report by Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL, Greece) by 30 votes to 12 with 1 abstention, showing that they were more demanding than the Commission in its initial proposal (EUROPE 9295).
Thus, while the Commission suggests the ban should be on exports only - as of 1 July 2011 - MEPs consider that the current stock of mercury, which is already very large (12,000 tonnes already saved by the chlor-alkali industry), and the increasingly restrictive policy on the use of mercury, justify there being a ban on mercury imports also. MEPs therefore voted for the date for the ban on exports to be brought forward to 1 December 2010. And from 1 January 2010, products containing mercury which cannot be placed on the market in the EU may no longer be exported either.
While the Commission hoped only to ban exports of metallic mercury, MEPs wanted to go much further by also applying this ban to cinnabar ore, calomel and other mercury compounds with a mercury concentration of above 5% in weight.
Finally, MEPs called for the owner of the storage facility to be responsible for safety. They proposed looking into the possibility of using a site at Almaden, Spain, as the chief storage depot. This site was until 2003 the biggest mercury mine in Europe and should, according to MEPs, benefit from compensatory measures. They would like sanctions to be imposed on anyone contravening the future regulation. (an)