Activites

• 2000/12/28 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Directive 2000/76
  • OJ L 332 28.12.2000, p. 0091
• 2000/12/04 Final act signed
• 2000/12/04 End of procedure in Parliament
• #2309
• 2000/11/20 Council Meeting
• 2000/11/16 Decision by Parliament, 3rd reading
  • T5-0512/2000 summary

    By adopting the resolution drafted by Mr Hans BLOKLAND (EDD, Nl), the Parliament approved an agreement reached in conciliation on a legislative proposal designed to reduce environmental hazards fom waste incineration plants. (Please refer to the previous step in the legislative process, in particular, the decisions of the committee responsible). COD980289 16/11/00 COD EN By adopting the resolution drafted by Mr Hans BLOKLAND (EDD, Nl), the Parliament approved an agreement reached in conciliation on a legislative proposal designed to reduce environmental hazards fom waste incineration plants. (Please refer to the previous step in the legislative process, in particular, the decisions of the committee responsible). �

• 2000/11/15 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2000/10/26 Report tabled for plenary, 3rd reading
  • A5-0321/2000
• 2000/10/11 Formal meeting of Conciliation Committee
  • 3641/2000
• 2000/08/25 Parliament's amendments rejected by Council
• 2000/03/15 Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading
  • T5-0100/2000 summary

    The European Parliament has adopted the report drafted by Mr. Johannes BLOKLAND (EDD, Neth) for a resolution on the common position adopted by the Council with a view to adopting a European Parliament and Council Directive on the incineration of waste. This report was subject to amendments and the addition of new Articles. The new Articles put in place relate to: - the Directive on waste management plans including plans for the pre-sorting of waste intended for incineration which is said to be needed in order to supplement the Community strategy for waste management; - the Directive shall be without prejudice to other Community legislation on waste and on protecting health and safety of workers at incineration plants; - the incineration or co-incineration plants: if an incineration or co-incineration plant does not comply with the conditions of the permit, in particular with the emission limit values for air and water, the competent authority shall take action to enforce compliance. Furthermore, the amendments which are included in this report relate to: - the Directive is intended to contribute towards attaining the overriding goal of European waste policy, particularly in terms of waste hierarchy: prevention, recycling, incineration with energy use and final disposal; - the incineration of vegetable waste from the food processing industry; - the total organic carbon (TOC) content, minus the content of elemental carbon, is less than 3% or their loss on ignition is less than 5% of the dry weight of the material; - the date for the exemption for NOx shall now be 1 January 2007 and the date for the exemption of dust shall be the same.�

• 2000/03/14 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2000/02/23 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
  • A5-0056/2000
• 1999/12/02 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• 1999/11/26 Council position published
  • 11472/1/1999 summary

    The Council's common position, whilst generally maintaining the approach proposed by the Commission, has added a series of provisions aiming either to strengthen or clarify the text. As requested by the European Parliament, the Council agreed to merge : - the existing Directive concerning the incineration of hazardous waste; - the Commission's proposal amending the Directive (which introduces emission limit values and associated conditions for the treatment of waste water); - the Commission's proposal on the incineration of waste to strengthen the provisions contained in existing legislation on municipal waste incineration, on the one hand, and to cover waste not within the scope of the existing Directive on the incineration of hazardous waste, on the other. Concerning the merge and subject to a specified transition period for NOx and heavy metal emissions caused by the incineration of hazardous waste, the Council accepted that for hazardous and non-hazardous waste the same emission limit values apply. More stringent provisions are maintained concerning the reception and storage purposes. New elements which have been introduced by the Council are based on the following points : - scope : the Council decided it was appropriate to consider vegetable waste from the food processing industry and cork waste biomass and, therefore, excluded them from the scope of the Directive; - definitions: the Council specified the notions of "dangerous waste", "mixed municipal waste", "co-incineration plant", "existing incineration plant", and "nominal capacity"; - application and permit: Member States who wish to do so may list the types of waste in the permit which can be co-incinerated in defined categories of such plants; if an operator of a plant incinerating non-hazardous waste envisages starting also to incinerate hazardous waste, the permit must be adapted according to provisions in the Directive relating to the integrated prevention and the reduction of pollution; - operating conditions: the Council added conditions for the co-incineration of hazardous waste and added an exemption clause for existing bark boilers, a provision to ensure the secure handling of infectious clinical waste and a provision aiming to ensure that the management of the plants shall be in the hands of a competent natural person; - water discharges from the cleaning of exhaust gases: the common position specifies that the waste waters to be dealt with concern only those resulting from the cleaning of exhaust gases. It underlines that if the waste waters are treated outside the plant this should be done according to strict conditions including, for example, the prohibition of dilution. Moreover, the Council added an optional provision for Member States to set emission limit values for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) or other pollutants; - measurement requirements: the Council added the same optional clause for air, as it did for water. It also added another optional clause allowing competent authorities to issue a permit allowing the possibility to reduce the periodic measurement for heavy metals and dioxins and furans, but onlyunder very strict conditions. After 2005, however, such derogations can only be authorised if the emissions are 50% below the emission limit values and if specific criteria have been developed according to the Committee procedure provided for by the Directive. The Council introduced a 97% daily average value over the year for the carbon monoxide emission limit value mentioned in Annex V(e). Finally, the compliance figures and limit values for emissions into water have been changed to offer an alternative both for total suspended solids and heavy metals. The Council added a review clause asking the Commission to report before the end of 2008 both to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of the proposed Directive and the experience and progress achieved since its implementation, to be accompanied, if appropriate, by proposals for revision. On the subject of transitional provisions, the Council added a new paragraph 3 to clarify that plants, which are producing products or generating energy and which have a permit where required by Community legislation, shall, if they start to co-incinerate waste not later than 4 years after the entry into force of the Directive, be regarded as existing co-incineration plants. The Council has also made a certain number of amendments to the Annexes.�

• #2223
• 1999/11/25 Council Meeting
• 1999/07/12 Modified legislative proposal published
  • COM(1999)0330 summary

    This amended proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive on the incineration of waste, adopted pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the Treaty, takes account of a number of amendments that the European Parliament adopted at its plenary session on 14 April 1999. The main amendment accepted concerns the merger of the proposal for a Directive on the incineration of waste and Directive 94/67/EC on the incineration of hazardous waste. This merger subsequently introduces an emission limit value for nitrogen oxides and tightens some emission limit values for heavy metals for plants incinerating or co-incinerating hazardous waste only. Article 14 of Directive 94/67/EC foresees that any emission value established following a revision of that Directive shall not apply to to existing incineration or co-incineration plants before 31/12/2006. It is therefore necessary to include a transition period for existing incineration or co-incineration only hazardous waste according to this Article. As a consequence of this merger it is also necessary to add the definition of hazardous waste to the text and to determine which Directive shall apply for plants incinerating or co-incinerating hazardous waste after the implementation of the Proposal and before the Directive 94/67/EC is repealed. In addition to the above-mentioned transition period to harmonise the standards of non-hazardous and hazardous waste the following provisions have been modified or introduced, compared to Directive 94/67/EC, for plants only incinerating or co-incinerating hazardous waste : - the calculation of the "total emission limit value" has been facilitated by introducing fixed "total emission limit values" for certain kilns and so called "Cprocess values" and "total emission limit values" for combustion plants (Annex II.2); - a new Annex IV provides for emission limit values for discharges from the cleaning of exhaust gases. The Commission also accepts the amendment underlining that the protection of health must be given priority over economic considerations as well as the amendment which broadens the definition of co-incineration plants by clarifying that it means any stationary or mobile plant whose main purpose is the generation of energy or production of material products and which thermally treats wastes with the exception of treatments dedicated to the recovery of the metal content of the waste and to the cleaning of tools. It is worth noting that the Commission rejected these amendments which aim notably at : - the introduction of waste management elements; - establishing links with air and water quality standards; - changing the emission limit values for incineration or co-incineration plants; - requiring that the heat generated in an incineration process or a co-incineration process be systematically recovered.�

• #2194
• 1999/06/24 Council Meeting
• 1999/05/06 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T4-0421/1999 summary

    Following the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam on 01/05/99, the European Parliament confirmed as its first reading under codecision procedure its vote of 14/04/99 on the proposal for a Council directive on the incineration of waste.�

• 1999/05/05 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• 1999/04/14 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T4-0308/1999 summary

    Adopting the report by Johannes Blokland (I-EDN,NL), the European Parliament considers that the incineration of hazardous and non-hazardous waste should be the subject of a single directive with common emission limit values. The directive should contribute to the achievement of the overall objective defined by European waste policy: prevention, recycling, incineration with energy use and final disposal. According to the adopted amendments, hazardous waste is defined in greater detail, in order that the incineration and treatment processes can be adapted. The definition of "coincineration plant" has been improved in order to to eliminate any possibility of escaping the legislation. Plants which thermally treat waste come under the directive, regardless of whether they only reduce the waste or not. The Parliament calls for more rigorous emission limit values than those proposed by the Commission, notably with regard to nitrous oxide (NOx), dust and ammonia. It demands that, in certain cases, yet more stringent standards than those set by the directive may be imposed for discharges into the atmosphere as for discharges into water. The Parliament requests that the issuing of permits for incineration plants should be subject to certain conditions (eg. the existence of a regional waste plan; the region has implemented other measures to reduce the volume of waste, systems for sorting and phasing out dangerous components and the introduction of pre-sorting). Furthermore, the issuing of new permits should be forbidden in regions where the environmental quality standards are in danger of being exceeded. The Parliament insists that plants which become operational after 31/12/2003 should seek to recover the heat generated during the incineration process as far as possible, namely by means of combined heat and power generation, the generating of process steam or district heating.�

• 1999/04/13 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 1999/03/30 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0183/1999
• 1998/12/14 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1998/10/29 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(1998)0558 summary

    PURPOSE: the proposed directive seeks to integrate the technical progress that has been made in the control of incineration processes and to extend the scope of existing Community measures to combat the pollution of air, water and land caused by the incineration of municipal and other non-hazardous wastes. CONTENT: the proposal's key objectives are to: - reduce substantially emissions of several key pollutants to air and control releases to water and land; - provide a major contribution to the achievement of the target contained in the Fifth Environment Action Programme to reduce emissions of dioxins and furans from known sources by 90% between 1985 and 2005 with a specific objective to introduce standards for dioxin and furan emissions for municipal waste incineration; - contribute to a reduction in releases of heavy metals; - provide a coherent methodology for the regulation and operation of non-hazardous waste incineration and co-incineration (the incineration of wastes in industrial plants, whose main purpose is to generate energy or produce material products and which incinerate waste as regular or additional fuel). The main elements of the proposed Directive include: - the extension of the scope of the existing legislation to cover the incineration of non-hazardous non-municipal wastes as well as hazardous wastes excluded from the Directive on hazardous waste incineration (94/67/EC); - the introduction of emission limits for plants that co-incinerate waste; - the updating of emission limits applicable to municipal waste incineration plants and the addition of limits on releases to water in order to reduce substantially the environmental impact of incineration and contribute to emission reductions and air quality targets, while preventing a transfer of pollutants to water; - the requirement that, as far as possible, heat generated in the incineration process shall be recovered and residues shall be prevented, reduced or recycled.�

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(1998)0558
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A4-0183/1999
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0308/1999
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0421/1999
• Modified legislative proposal published: COM(1999)0330
• Council position published: 11472/1/1999
• Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A5-0056/2000
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T5-0100/2000
• Joint text approved by Conciliation Committee co-chairs: 3641/2000
• Report tabled for plenary, 3rd reading: A5-0321/2000
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 3rd reading: T5-0512/2000
• : Directive 2000/76
• : OJ L 332 28.12.2000, p. 0091

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)