| CIAA e-newsletter - Issue 1 - 7/07/2006 | ||
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Revision of the Waste Framework Directive
On 20 June, Caroline Jackson, rapporteur in the European Parliament�s Environment Committee, finalised her draft report on the proposal for a revised Waste Framework Directive. The Commission proposal aims to help the EU become a recycling society that seeks to prevent waste and uses waste as a resource. For this purpose, it sets recycling standards, requires Member States to draw up waste prevention plans, and simplifies legislation.
In her draft report, Ms Jackson calls for a stricter 5-stage waste hierarchy and proposes that Member States may depart from the hierarchy where justified by scientific evidence. CIAA is concerned that a more rigid hierarchy could lead to suboptimal policy choices in certain waste areas. In particular in the field of packaging, studies have revealed that no generally valid environmental preference can be established between reusable and recyclable packaging.
Ms Jackson also calls for several decisions of a �highly political nature� to be taken through co-decision rather than by comitology procedure and is seeking to reduce bureaucracy by removing certain detailed prescriptions for national waste plans and programmes. Finally, Ms Jackson calls for more certainty with regard to key definitions, which have given rise to a series of Court cases (ECJ). Her draft report includes, amongst others, a definition of �by-products� and refers to the jurisprudence of the ECJ, which repeatedly held that by-products fall outside the scope of the Directive. In a parallel development, the Commission is also addressing the issue of by-products and will publish, by the end of 2006, a guidance Communication on by-products, equally drawing on ECJ cases. CIAA welcomes the EU institutions� efforts to bring about a legal clarification for by-products. Already in 2004, CIAA launched a joint initiative in cooperation with Commission services and other key stakeholders and developed a decision tool to distinguish between by-products and waste in the food and drink sector. Based on the results of this initiative, CIAA supports a legal clarification that by-products do not fall under the scope of the Waste Framework Directive, in line with the criteria applied by the ECJ.
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CIAA is the voice of the European food and drink industry - the leading industrial sector and major EU employer and exporter. CIAA's role is to represent the food and drink industries' interests, at the level of both European and international institutions. Membership of CIAA is made up of 25 national federations, including 3 observers, 32 European sector associations and 22 major food and drink companies.
For further information, please contact: Thierry Habotte, CIAA Communications Director Tel: + 32 2 508 10 28 [email protected] |
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