European Commission ideas for a uniform, EU-wide waste reporting system won approval last week from the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
However in a debate on the issue MEPs said they want want national governments to file annual reports, rather than at 3-year intervals, as proposed by the Commission. Other amendments demanded by the Parliament in a first reading vote call for a more comprehensive system, striking out exemptions proposed by the Commission for some categories of waste, such as agricultural waste.
On the basis of voluntary reporting and obligations imposed by a patchwork of EU legislation on hazardous waste, landfill and incineration, the EU statistical service Eurostat estimates that the 15 EU states currently
generate 1.3bn tonnes of waste each year.
“But around 20% of the EU waste is currently unaccounted for,”
claimed Dutch MEP Hans Blokland, reporting for the environment
committee. “Europe must have reliable, up-to-date and comparable statistics to monitor the quantities, types and sources of waste generated and the methods used to treat and dispose of it.”
Strasbourg wants states to provide figures for the generation of waste, as well as detailing recovery and disposal. Data on waste imports and exports should also be recorded, say MEPs who want to prevent waste being dumped outside the EU.
On timing, the parliament points out that technical aspects of EU waste
reporting have been under discussion for 8 years, so governments can hardly claim that they are being bounced into new obligations
Assuming that the legislative draft gains final approval during 2002, the first figures will be collected for 2004. MEPs oppose a Commission suggestion that states should be granted a further 2-year delay in cases where national statistical systems would require “major adaptations”.
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