Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-11-Speech-2-351"
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"en.20071211.38.2-351"2
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"Ensuring that Member States correctly apply EU waste legislation and preventing illegal waste activities are among the Commission’s top priorities. The proposed environmental crime directive will ensure that serious environmental offences are subject to effective criminal sanctions throughout the European Union. All serious waste-related crimes, including the illegal treatment, transport, export and import of waste, are covered by the proposed directive.
The environmental crime initiative is, however, far from being the only action taken by the Commission in order to prevent waste crime. The Commission is taking a number of specific actions in areas where waste crime is a serious problem for Member States. This concerns, in particular, illegal landfills and illegal waste shipments, which are covered by important EU legislation.
The Commission takes early action in order to prevent negative environmental and health impacts as a result of waste activities. Awareness events concerning landfills and waste shipments are organised where the risk is high. Last year, 16 such events took place and, this year, another 10 events are planned. Multilateral meetings are also regularly held with national authorities and stakeholders to tackle bad implementation of EU waste legislation.
Guidelines are continuously developed regarding key EU waste legislation, such as on waste shipments and targeting particular problematic waste schemes, for example, waste electrical and electronic equipment and light vehicles. Focus on such guidelines will ensure that EU legislation is uniformly and correctly applied throughout the European Union.
It is of paramount importance to know what is going on in the Member States and to verify compliance on the ground. The Commission closely cooperates with the IMPEL network regarding, for example, joint enforcement actions on waste shipments and inspections and monitoring of landfills.
Systematic failures by Member States to respect EU waste legislation are continuously met by legal action from the Commission, including the powerful threat of fines under the EC Treaty. For example, in 2003 Greece was fined EUR 20 000 a day for tolerating an illegal landfill on the island of Crete. Currently, a large number of illegal landfills in many Member States are being tackled by serious infringement actions launched by the Commission.
The Commission is also encouraging Member States to make use of funding opportunities at EU level and to ensure that the waste programme expenditure under the various instruments contributes to the improved implementation of waste legislation.
The EU waste shipment regulation contains the basis for cooperation between Member States to prevent illegal waste shipment. We are currently examining the need for further actions in order to strengthen the enforcement of EU waste legislation, including legally binding rules for inspections of waste shipments. Specific criteria could possibly be defined in order to ensure sufficient quality and frequency of inspections."@en1
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