Waste legislation: Commission moves against Germany, Italy, the UK and Spain

The European Commission has decided to bring Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom before the European Court of Justice for failure to comply with EU waste legislation. Germany does not properly apply the Waste Shipment Regulation, while Italy has not properly transposed the Hazardous Waste Directive. The United Kingdom has failed to comply with the waste management requirements resulting from several EU Directives (the Waste Framework Directive, the Hazardous Waste Directive and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive). The Commission has also decided to send a Reasoned Opinion to Spain for failure to notify a packaging waste regional law in its draft form as requested by the Packaging Waste Directive.

The procedure against Germany results from the German authorities' practice of unduly restricting the shipment of waste to other Member States where the waste is to be recovered in cement kilns. Germany only authorises such shipments when additional conditions are met for example in terms of minimum calorific value and burning efficiency of the waste. When these criteria are not met, Germany argues that the waste will not be recovered but simply disposed of.

The Waste Shipment Regulation (Council Regulation 259/93 on the supervision and control of shipments of waste) allows Member States to object to waste being shipped for disposal abroad, notably on the grounds that this would be contrary to the "self-sufficiency" principle (i.e. that each Member State has to take care of its own waste). But the Regulation does not allow Member States to object to shipment of waste on "self-sufficiency" grounds when the waste will be recovered in another Member State.

The decision concerning Italy relates to this country's failure to implement properly EU hazardous waste legislation (Council Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste). This directive provides that all undertakings recovering hazardous waste should be subject to prior authorisation by the relevant competent authority. A simplified procedure is also foreseen whereby these undertakings are only subject to registration if they meet appropriate requirements to be determined by the Member States. At present, some undertakings recovering hazardous waste are exempted from the prior authorisation requirement, even though no appropriate technical conditions have yet been set out by Italy.

The decision concerning the United Kingdom results from the failure of this country to adopt and communicate to the Commission waste management plans complying with all of the following three European Union (EU) Directives on waste the Waste Directive (Directive 75/442/EEC on waste), the Hazardous Waste Directive (Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste) and the Packaging Waste Directive (Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste).

Waste management plans are a key element in the EU's approach to waste, being intended to help achieve the objectives of waste prevention or reduction, waste recovery, environmentally safe waste disposal and the establishment of an integrated and adequate network of disposal installations across the EU.

The plans sent to the Commission by the UK fell short of the requirements arising from EU waste legislation: the UK territory was not completely covered, some of the plans were no longer valid and only one contains a chapter relating to the management of packaging and packaging waste. The UK subsequently announced that national waste strategies were being prepared for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. No indication was given for a revision of the plan for Gibraltar. Given that no actual plan has been adopted since then, the Commission has decided to press ahead and bring the case before the Court of Justice.

The Spanish case concerns the failure of the authorities of the Canary Islands to comply with Article 16 of the Packaging Waste Directive. This provision requires the Member States to notify to the Commission in a draft form any measure the national authorities intend to adopt in relation to the implementation of the Directive. This notification procedure aims to enable the Commission and the other Member States to whom the notified draft is circulated to comment on the draft in the light of the Directive.

The Canary Islands authorities have adopted a law on packaging waste management without notifying it when it was still a draft to the Commission. Hence the decision to send a Reasoned Opinion.

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström declared on this occasion: "Strict enforcement of Community waste legislation is a prerequisite of any sound pollution-prevention policy".