. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/Notif.00/310
26 July 2000
(00-3080)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade
NOTIFICATION
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):           
2. Agency responsible:   European Commission
Agency or authority designated to handle comments regarding the notification shall be
indicated if different from above:   Commission EC-TBT Enquiry Point
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X], 2.10.1 [    ], 5.6.2 [    ], 5.7.1 [    ], other:           
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   Electrical and electronic
equipment
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   European
Commission Proposal for European Parliament and Council Directives on (1) Waste
Electrical and Electronic Equipement and (2) the Restriction of the Use of Certain
Hazardous Substances in Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Ref:  COM (2000)
347 Provisional , 2000/0154 (COD), 2000/0159 (COD)).
The proposal is still a draft and is available in English, French and German.  It is currently
being revised by juristes linguistes.  Once this has been done, it will be available in Danish,
Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek,  Italian, Portuguese, Swedish and Spanish.
6. Description of content:   The proposed directive on Waste Electrical Equipment proposes:
Producers to take responsibility of certain phases of the waste management of their
products.
Separate collection of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment through appropriate
systems, so that users can return their electrical electronic equipment.
In order to ensure improved treatment and re-use/recycling of Waste Electrical and
Electrical Equipment, producers have to set up appropriate systems.
In order to achieve high collection rates and to facilitate recovery of Waste Electrical and
Electronic Equipment, users of such equipment must be informed about their role in their
system.
The proposed Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment will ensure that substances causing majorproblems during the waste management phase, such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalant
chromium and certain brominated flame retardants are substituted.G/TBT/Notif.00/310
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7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:
The proposed Directives aims to protect human health and the environment.  The principle
objectives are to protect soil, water and air from pollution caused by current management of
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, to avoid the generation of waste, which has to
be disposed of and to reduce the harmfulness of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment.It seeks to preserve valuable resources, in particular energy.  The proposed Directive also
aims to harmonize national measures on the mangement of WEEE in the Internal Market.
8. Relevant documents:   See section 5.
9. Proposed date of adoption:  Approximately end 2001/ early 2002
Proposed date of entry into force:
The proposed two Directives will now be considered by the Council of Ministers and the
European Parliament.
The proposal for a Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances
requires the substitution of various heavy metals and brominated flame retardants in newelectrical and electronic equipment from 1 January 2008 onwards.
10. Final date for comments:   60 days from date of notification.
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [     ] or address, e-mail and telefax
number of the other body:           
Commission CE
DG Enterprise Unit F/2
Fax: +32-2-299-5725
Email. ec-tbt@cec.eu.int
The draft proposals in English, French and German can be accessed via the internet at:http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/docum/00347_en.htm.