Speaking at the Futuresource 2010 event in London's Docklands on Tuesday (June 15), Karolina Fras said that the Commission had confirmed last week that it would not be exploring plans for a separate Biowaste Directive. The legislation had been considered but was dismissed in a report earlier this month as being unnecessary (see letsrecycle.com story).
We have a lot of legislation in place but what we have to do is make it work
Karolina Fras, European Commission
“Not for the moment,” she said, noting that Environment Commissioner Potocnik “has explained that we have looked into the question of biowaste and have found no obstacles at European level to doing it right at national level so will not propose it in the short term future”.
And, she said the Commission's general approach to dealing with waste was focused on “better implementation and enforceability”, noting that: “We have a lot of legislation in place but what we have to do is make it work.”
However, Ms Fras, who is acting deputy head of the unit for sustainable production and consumption at the Commission, added that there was the potential for biowaste targets – which have been advocated by many in the organics sector – to be looked at as part of the Commission's planned review of the targets in the revised Waste Framework Directive in 2014.
“We might look at separate collection or treatment of biowaste targets when we look at other targets,” she said.
Ms Fras said that the current targets, such as the goal for all EU member states to reach a 50% household recycling rate by 2020, were not “cast in stone”, explaining that “we will look at them in 2014 and also commercial & industrial waste and biowaste, so that is still an open solution.
“But, the basis of the legislation will remain in place and I think regulatory stability is important for the waste sector,” she added.
Implementation
Ms Fras acknowledged that there were still significant issues that needed to be addressed on the implementation and enforcement of EU waste law, highlighting figures which showed that 19% of the cases started by the Environment Commission in the European Court of Justice related to waste.
But, on the question of whether – as suggested in a Commission report published in February 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story) – a dedicated body should be created to address the issue, Ms Fras said there were a number of questions that needed to be dealt with in relation to what shape such an organisation might take.
“What we have in mind is maybe not a separate body. All we want to improve is the implementation, we're looking at having a dedicated group of people to work with member states, to work with their customs people or to work with landfill people, to train them and share best practice.
“We have a very small group of people but we need to have people who can go there and check what is happening on the ground,” she added.
Ms Fras explained that her team was “constantly suggesting” to the Commission hierarchy that action needed to be taken on implementation, and said that, at the moment: “We're looking into how much would it cost and how much would it save if we were to do it properly?”
In particular, she stressed the difference between establishing the body as an internal group within the commission or a self-standing agency which would have to be approved by the European Council.
Speakers
Among the other speakers in the morning session, former shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth, who is now chairman of the Conservative Environmental Network, talked about the challenges facing the new environment secretary Caroline Spelman – and said he did not envy her having to deal with them.
He commented: “The whole thing is a total blamanche, a complete and utter mess”.
Christophe Cros, chairman and chief executive of SITA France and the chairman of FNADE – the French waste association, compared the UK's waste system with that in France and highlighted positives and negatives in both. In particular he spoke in praise of the UK increasing landfill tax but urged caution on AD.
And, Peter Kurth, president and chief executive for German waste federation the BDE and vice-president of FEAD, talked about how Germany had improved its waste management and the contribution that waste management could make to the EU's emission reduction goals – 34% of the 20% emissions savings the EU needs to make by 2020.
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