While a single biowaste directive may look like "an attractive option" that could give a "strong political signal," such a proposal may be excessive, said Bartosz Zambrzycki, an official at the European Commission's environment directorate.
In particular, setting a standard for product quality compost would be "a very time consuming process" as the Lisbon Treaty limits the use of expert committees for dealing with technicalities, he added during a debate on biowaste on Tuesday (2 March).
He said a simpler option would be to modify the bloc's current Waste Framework Directive (WFD) - either Article 11 on collections of different waste streams or Article 22, which currently encourages separate collection and treatment of biowaste.
There is "no difference between whether we redraft Article 11 or do a separate directive," Zambrzycki said, adding that amending the existing directive would be the "simpler solution".
EU presidency trio priority
Biowaste is one of the stated priorities of the current Spanish EU Presidency.
Representing the presidency, Pilar Garcia Doñoro said that "our priority is that the Commission tables specific regulation on this". She stressed that Belgium and Hungary, which will take over the EU presidency after Spain, also support this view (EurActiv 11/06/09).
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources said the topic is "genuinely controversial," as local and regional differences are so great that it will be very difficult to legislate on the matter at EU level.
Impact assessment
Presenting the preliminary results of a Commission impact assessment on biowaste management, Zambrzycki said significant progress could be made by simply implementing fully existing EU laws on landfill and the waste hierarchy. He also stressed that there are no obstacles at EU level preventing member states from taking action alone by pursuing more active biowaste policies.
The impact assessment also notes that compost markets could be improved by introducing EU quality standards for compost, which could in turn improve biowaste recycling.
But the initial assessment concludes that "it should be possible" to achieve these targets by adapting existing legislation.
Zambrzycki said that the Commission's legal services are currently conducting a quality check of the impact assessment and, when approved, the EU executive will decide whether to present legislative or non-legislative proposals.
