Report on the implementation of Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles

Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles (the ELV Directive) primarily aims to prevent the production of waste from vehicles and their components so as to reduce the final disposal of waste and its overall environmental impact. Moreover, the measures laid down in the Directive seek to improve the environmental performance of all economic operators involved in a vehicle’s life cycle, especially, the operators directly involved in the treatment of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). Overall, the ELV Directive follows a circular economy approach by encouraging ecodesign, providing for the elimination of hazardous substances in the vehicles and establishing high reuse / recycling / recovery targets, thus aiming reuse the valuable materials from the ELVs and keep precious resources in the economy.

Article 9 of the ELV Directive obliges Member States to report to the Commission at three-year intervals on the implementation of the Directive based on a questionnaire established by Commission Decision 2001/753/EC. The questionnaire consists of two parts: the first part concerns details on the transposition of the Directive into national law and the second contains information on the actual implementation of the Directive. Based on the information provided by Member States, for each reporting period, the Commission draws up an implementation report.

This is the third report on the implementation of the ELV Directive and it covers two reporting periods: from 21 April 2008 to 20 April 2011; and from 21 April 2011 to 20 April 2014. The first implementation report, which covered 21 April 2002 to 20 April 2005, was published in 2007; the second implementation report, covering 21 April 2005 to 20 April 2008, was published in 2009.

The reporting punctuality and quality for this third implementation report improved compared to previous reporting periods. All Member States provided the Commission with the implementation reports for the 2008-2011 period, whereas two Member States did not send reports for 2011-2014. The information provided was complete and overall of satisfactory quality. It has been complemented by further information available to the Commission, such as from checking the conformity of national measures implanting the ELV Directive. Furthermore, according to Commission Decision 2005/293/EC, data on the Directive’s targets for reuse/recycling and reuse/recovery are to be reported on an annual basis within 18 months after the end of the reference year. This information has also been taken into account in this report.