Outlining the latest government position, Lord McIntosh of Haringey – Trade and Industry minister in the House of Lords – explained to peers last week that the proposed WEEE directive is currently in draft form. “Major policy issues still need to be agreed between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers through the conciliation process. Detailed preparation will commence once a final text is available towards the end of the year.”
Among the issues debated by peers were the cost to small businesses, the compulsory separation of waste by consumers, and the funding of “waste extraction”.
Small businesses
Baroness Wilcox (Conservative) raised the issue of small businesses which will now be covered by the directive. Originally the draft directive proposed an exemption for five years for small businesses. But the European Parliament voted to remove this last month. Baroness Wilcox asked what the government would do to reinstate the exemption, which she said would cause “great and sometimes insurmountable difficulties for many of Britain’s smaller business.”
In response, Lord McIntosh replied that the government would be working hard with governments in other countries to return to the “common position” on the directive rather than to the amendments introduces by the European Parliament.
Household separation
Lord McIntosh commented that some of the Parliament's amendments were well meant and manageable. But, he noted that there are particular problems for the UK, for example, in the amendment [by the Parliament] requiring “compulsory separation of waste by consumers.” The DTI minister said that this was easier in countries that had fewer types of collection systems than exist in the UK.
Funding
The Parliament last month voted to compel producers to provide up-front guarantees for the financing of the future disposal of their products, Lord Greaves told the debate.
Responding Lord McIntosh responded: “The problem of producer responsibility for financing waste extraction, except where that would be uneconomic, presents difficulties.”
But, the DTI minister confirmed that compromise would be needed, which is likely to be partly because the votes in the Parliament were passed by large majorities.
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