| Author (Person) | Carstens, Karen |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.14, 22.4.04 |
| Publication Date | 22/04/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Karen Carstens Date: 22/04/04 A REVISION of EU waste shipment rules now under discussion in the Council of Ministers has seriously irked traders of materials destined to be recycled. The new plans, put forward by the European Commission last summer as an update to a 1993 waste shipments regulation, are intended to strengthen the current regime and lead to greater global harmonization of shipments. But the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has warned that dealers, traders and brokers of the whole range of recycling materials - now up to 50% of materials used by industry - have been short-changed in the process. BIR, along with the European Metal Trade and Recycling Federation, the European Recovered Paper Association and the European Ferrous Recovery and Recycling Federation, has come out strongly against a so-called notifier hierarchy that the Commission has added to the regulation. If implemented in its current form, this "would from 2006 seriously restrict licensed collectors, registered dealers, brokers and traders from carrying out their specialist business", BIR stresses in a statement. At present, these businesses are licensed, registered or permitted by their national authorities. "The Commission never publicly justified this "notifier hierarchy", its origin remaining a mystery," BIR contends. "Without change, this legal text would damage currently well-functioning markets, by removing specialist operators." BIR Technical and Environment Director Ross Bartley said the "notifier hierarchy" also managed to slip through a first reading in the European Parliament. He said the rapporteur for the waste shipments regulation revision, Dutch MEP Hans Blokland, did not accept an amendment proposed by BIR to redress the situation and refused to discuss it with his colleagues. Now BIR is lobbying member states, as the Council of Ministers is due to reach political agreement on the regulation by the end of June. "We don't know why and we don't know who came up with this idea," said Bartley. "We're just saying it's a bad idea. "Some people have argued that more controls are needed," he continued. "Our argument is that the traders and dealers own the material. They're not the same as the brokers. "The Commission brought the traders, dealers and brokers so far down in the hierarchy that they cannot do their job - if you cut these people out of the system, it's not going to work efficiently," he insisted. BIR has warned that no dealer, trader or broker would be allowed to arrange exports to industrializing countries that require notifications. In addition, no dealer, trader or broker in recycling materials would be allowed to arrange exports to Latvia, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia, as these countries would require notification through new accession treaty arrangements. This could not only damage business, but might have the unintended side effect of encouraging industrializing countries wanting materials, yet requiring notification, to drop their controls. Bartley said the role of a dealer, broker or trader is similar to that of a real estate agent or an insurance agent, as their knowledge of the recycling market place is very specialized. "They are people who enable the market, because they know who can buy which materials, they know which company in which country to turn to." In the case of metals, for instance, "their history goes back generations," he said. "These are specialist people with an in-depth knowledge of the market." Moreover, he claimed, the current system of notification at national level has been running smoothly for years. "It's already licensed at national level, so it doesn't need a European heavy-handed rule to break up the whole system," Bartley commented. "Don't break the system. Where things go wrong, the member states can correct it. It's worked quite well for the past 11 years, and the market was functioning well even before then." But the Council of Ministers could be heading in the right direction, he conceded. "They have made some adjustments [to the regulation], but they still haven't made the distinction between dealers and traders on the one hand, and brokers on the other," added Bartley. "They have got to recognize a distinction." Still, he added: "They're aware of the issue, and they're moving towards a solution, so we haven't given up hope yet." But the real problem, as Bartley sees it, lies in the concept of a "notifier hierarchy" itself. "A hierarchy is not the way to go about this. "After all, you're talking about filling in a form and sending it to national governments. So they can do it at national level. "They don't need a European system." Moreover, if enforced too strictly, it would only serve to place more of a burden on the companies where the recycling materials originate, as they would be at the "top" of the system, the BIR technical and environment chief claimed. The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) is unhappy about European Commission plans to update a 1993 waste shipments regulation, warning that dealers, traders and brokers of recycling materials have been 'short-changed' in the process. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Environment |
