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Environment Daily

19 September 2002 -- Governments and MEPs have formally opened a conciliation procedure to decide the final texts of directives on recycling waste electrical and electronic equipment, and restricting hazardous substances in manufacture. Under EU rules, negotiations should conclude by 25 October, although a two-week extension to early November is possible. A first conciliation meeting was held last week, concentrating on the draft WEEE directive. None of the major points of disagreement was resolved. Since then, however, the council of ministers' position has moved slightly towards the European parliament's on the crucial issue of how take-back and recycling schemes should be financed by producers. The parliament wants individual financial responsibility to be mandatory. The council has been insisting on leaving member states the option of collective financing. Following a suggestion from France, the Danish EU presidency last week proposed a compromise formulation that would have substantially adopted the parliament's line. Though supported by Sweden, Spain and partially by Germany, this compromise proposal was opposed by the UK, with backing from the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Italy. In the end, a UK formulation that producers should "finance the waste from their products" was put forward for the round of negotiations with MEPs.

This would still leave both collective and individual financing options open. Meanwhile, the question of how untraceable "orphan" waste will be treated may have been solved. The council has tentatively agreed to a system of financial guarantees before goods can be marketed, though the parliament still wants products to be clearly stamped with makers' names. Other outstanding differences are on so-called "clever chips", where the council is resisting parliament's demands for a stronger wording on product re-use, to ensure parts such as printer cartridges cannot be disabled once spent. The parliament also wants to remove the council's plan to exempt small businesses from the law for five years. Other big issues including collection, recycling and recovery targets, as well as the substance phase-out deadline in the directive on restrictions on hazardous substances (RoHS), have yet to be tackled. The same meeting last week also opened conciliation talks on directives concerning restrictions on the flame retardant pentabromodiphenyl ether, and access to environmental information.

Follow-up: European Commission http://europa.eu.int/comm/, tel: +32 2 299 1111; European parliament http://www.europarl.eu.int/, tel: +32 2 284 2111.