Speaking to letsrecycle.com on Tuesday, Caroline Jackson said she was “fairly hopeful” the legislation could be agreed by both the European Parliament, Council and Commission before the end of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU, by June 30.
There is already apprehension in some countries that landfill targets are pushing people towards incineration.
Dr Caroline Jackson MEP
Dr Jackson's comments come despite disagreement in key areas of the Directive's negotiation so far – with EU Member States, represented by the Council, conflicting with the Parliament over issues like recycling targets and energy from waste.
Next week, on April 2 and 3, the draft Directive is to go for its second reading before the European Parliament's environment committee, when MEPs will discuss 238 amendments put forward after the Council's latest position on the Directive was published in December.
These include re-instating recycling and waste prevention targets, which the Council removed from the draft Directive, as well as measures clarifying when certain secondary materials could be declassified as a “waste” once they have been fully recovered.
Dr Jackson said she hoped that a deal could be struck whereby the Council agrees to Parliament's favoured recycling targets if the European Parliament agrees to the Council's wishes that efficient energy from waste plants can be classified legally as “recovery facilities” (see letsrecycle.com story).
This would mean that the Directive could be passed at the plenary session of the European Parliament in early or mid June. If it is not agreed in June, the legislation would require conciliation – a series of meetings between the Council and Parliament to hammer out a deal.
She said: “Although there are a large number of amendments there are a lot of duplications and a lot will fall, so we won't have to vote on them all. After that it is a question of getting together with the Council to see what we insist on and can bear. I'm fairly hopeful we can reach it without conciliation.”
“I'm reasonably hopeful we can make an agreement with the Council and Commission to conclude the consideration of the directive by June 30 and the end of the Slovenian Presidency,” Dr Jackson said.
“If not, the next phase of conciliation will re-open with the French Presidency on July 1,” she added.
Amendments
Among the amendments which the European Parliament's environment committee will be considering next week will be whether the waste hierarchy should be described as a “general rule” rather than a “guiding principal”.
The hierarchy has already been agreed in a five-stage form prioritising waste minimisation, followed by re-use, recycling, energy recovery and placing disposal as the least favoured option for waste.
Dr Jackson believes the final Directive will make clear that departure from the hierarchy should not be made “casually”.
Dr Jackson also wants to see European targets to recycle 50% of domestic waste by 2020 and 70% of construction and demolition waste by 2020, alongside a target to stabilise waste growth to 2009 levels by 2012.
These targets are modified from those put forward in the first reading of the draft Directive, in order to be “more acceptable” to the Commission, while at the same time delivering recycling aspirations.
To complement this, the MEP for South West England is also supporting the use of incineration, and proposes that an energy efficiency formula should be included in the Directive to determine which plants could be termed “recovery” plants.
Dr Jackson insisted that the combination of incineration and recycling provisions in the Directive would incentivise member states to keep recycling, while at the same time recognising the part that can be played by waste incineration.
This would be particularly important because the Directive would set the scene for the period after the current Landfill Directive targets from 2020, she believes, driving councils to continue recycling.
She said: “This would be a very good deal for people in Europe generally speaking. There is already apprehension in some countries that landfill targets are pushing people towards incineration.”
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