Policy Sections
Mini Sections
The agenda of the 28 June Environment Council includes potentially difficult issues such as mercury storage and the revision of the Waste Framework Directive. Negotiations, to be held in Luxembourg, are expected to last well into the night.
This is the last Environment Council of the German Presidency. Originally scheduled for two days, the one-day Council session features four substantial legislative dossiers plus 19 smaller points.
In addition to seeking political agreements on waste, water quality and mercury trade and storage, ministers will discuss biosafety and biodiversity, vehicle CO2 emissions, genetically modified potatoes and the revision of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS).
Concerning waste, in 2005 the Commission proposed a sweeping revision of the Waste Framework Directive, which includes a three-step hierarchy for determining whether waste should be recycled, incinerated or placed in landfills, and proposes stricter energy efficiency criteria for determining if an incinerator is classified as a "recovery" or "disposal" operation (EurActiv 21/12/05).
In general, Parliament welcomed the proposal, but suggested a stricter five-step hierarchy for classifying waste (EurActiv 14/02/07), which the Commission adopted in its revised proposal.
LinksDossier: Cars & CO2
LinksDossier: Waste Prevention & Recycling
Under the proposal, only facilities that are classified as recovery would be allowed to import waste from other member states. Facilities are essentially classifed as recovery operations if the energy (in particular heat) created during waste processing is greater than the energy required to process the waste.
France is concerned about this aspect of the text, because many of its incinerators, particularly those in the south of France where less heat generation is required, would no longer classify as recovery facilities and would be downgraded to disposal operations.
Sending waste, effectively as a tradable good, across EU member state borders for incineration purposes has also raised concerns in Denmark, which has a number of efficient recovery incinerators. Denmark is concerned that German waste in particular would flood into the country and sold to incinerators at a higher price than that which competing domestic-waste suppliers are able to offer.
Ministers will discuss whether to expand the scope of the export ban beyond metallic mercury to mercury compounds, where to store waste mercury, and on which legal basis to legislate.
Parliament's proposal to create a total mercury trade ban, including import as well as export (EurActiv 20/06/07), will not be discussed.
Sticking largely to the Commission's orginal proposal, the German Presidency does not expect to encounter much difficulty in reaching a political agreement on establishing limits on the concentration of toxins, such as pesticides and heavy metals, in surface water.
The proposal is likely to encounter a much more critical reception during the second reading in Parliament, which wants to increase the number of "priority hazardous substances" in the list of toxins by 28 (23/05/07).
A German proposal to increase the amount of auctioning in the EU-ETS seems to be gaining increasing support ahead of the Council. Ministers are also expected to ask the Commission to consider land-use for carbon offset, and to broaden the scheme through greater linkages with the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The Council will adopt a decision on EU participation in negotiations on trade in living genetically modified organisms under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
, and a conclusion on EU priorities for a May 2008 UN Convention on Biodiversity
.
The Council will also give its reactions to a February Commission proposal to reduce vehicle CO2 emissions (EurActiv 08/02/07).
Concerning the authorisation of genetically modified potatoes for industrial starch use by German chemicals giant BASF, it is expected that Council will not reach a majority neither for nor against authorisation, meaning that the Commission will likely permit cultivation of the potato under a special "comitology" procedure.
Speaking to EurActiv on the waste dossier, UK Conservative MEP Caroline Jackson said that "Parliament will be very reluctant to back the idea of entrenching the possibility of calling incineration 'recovery' if it [must also back down on] some specific targets for reduction and recycling". Dr Jackson added that the "joker in the pack" might be MEPs from the new member states, whose position on the issue is unclear. There may be a temptation in a number of EU-10 states to skip recovery and recycling and move straight to incineration, since pressure on Eastern European landfills is growing.
Speaking for Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE), Waste & Resources Campaigner Dr Michael Warhurst said: "EU governments should be focusing on promoting recycling and waste prevention, as these give real gains in climate and resource efficiency. Incineration is a climate problem, not a climate solution, and should be being phased out, not encouraged."
Concerning mercury storage, Sweden supports the idea of placing the substance in old salt mines as a "long-term temporary" solution until a better alternative can be found. Euro Chlor, which represents the European chlor-alkali industry, supports Sweden's proposal, arguing that "using former salt mines for this purpose would be an environmentally sound option at acceptable cost".
The European Environment Bureau (EEB) is "suspicious" of placing liquid mercury into any form of old mines. EEB points to the need for strict monitoring of the substance and that final storage cannot be considered fully safe until the liquid mercury has been transformed into solid mercury (a process that is not yet industrially viable).
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
France
Hungary
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Turkey
Del.icio.us
Digg It
Technorati
Europeans challenge Europe
Evropa.dnevnik.bg:
EurActiv.cz:
EurActiv.fr:
EurActiv.hu:
EurActiv.pl:
EurActiv.ro:
EurActiv.sk:
EurActiv.com.tr: