Brussels, 14/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - “The fight against the international trafficking of toxic waste” was the theme of a seminar on 7-9 October in Paris, which brought together delegations from the EU27, Switzerland, Norway and Canada. The head of the French gendarmerie, General Roland Gilles, explained that the objective of this “emergency seminar” was to promote European awareness about the new threat of toxic waste trafficking, a particularly lucrative trade worth an estimated €1bn world-wide. According to ASP, Colonel Thierry Bourret, the director of the Central French Office for combating damage to the environment and public health (OCLAESP), declared: “Every year, the EU produces 1.5 billion tonnes of waste, a 2% annual increase, 300 million tonnes of which have to be recycled or destroyed. The problem is going to be around for a long time”. Given the high processing cost - €400 per tonne for asbestos, 2,000 for some liquids, producers are tempted to get rid of their toxic waste by dumping or exporting it to third countries or emerging countries in exchange for hard cash. The other solution consists in illegal recycling of toxic matter by mixing them with authorised materials, such as asbestos with cement. Colonel Bourret affirmed that “60-70% of containers inspected were in non-compliance: some of them were legally importing computer equipment in exchange for pyralene”. Portuguese magistrate, Antonio Luis dos Santos Alves, currently working at Eurojust, said that this trafficking is almost always cross-border and sometimes involves “more than a hundred companies in fifteen countries in three continents”. He added that it was a “complex crime because it involves false documents, money laundering and requires us to provide special investigation structures”. The most recent case involves the Sollac steel company (owned by the French Arcelor-Mittal group), which is suspected of developing an evacuation network for toxic waste over the last ten years. Millions of tonnes of “naphthalene” residue, a toxic and carcinogenic product used in steel cleaning plants, had been fraudulently sold on in Belgium in the form of tanker fuel between 1993-2004. To fight this kind of trafficking, the investigators meeting in Paris called for the setting up of joint investigation teams, the strengthening of cross-border controls and the integration of an “environment” section into police, gendarme and magistrate training. By the end of the month, the European Union will have adopted a new directive to enable it to enhance its penal mechanisms and harmonise sanctions. Anna Karamat, expert at Directorate General Environment at the European Commission explained: “Significant disparities in sanctions applied have been observed in the different countries that range from €2,000-3,000 maximum to several million and from six months in prison to eight years”. The criminals involved are not hesitating to take advantage and operate in countries that use less punitive measures against them. (B.C./transl.rh)