WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/248 
9 February 2009  
 (09-0620) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
 European Commission EC-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43, 
E-mail:  ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu 
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/
  
 
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:   
Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste electrical and electronic 
equipment (WEEE) (Recast) (COM(2008) 810 fina l) (57 pages in English, French and 
Spanish).  
6. Description of content:   
The proposed Directive recasts the already existing Directive 2002/96/EC.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable:   
Directive 2002/96/EC aims to prevent the genera tion of electrical and electronic waste and to 
promote reuse, recycling and other forms of reco very in order to reduce the quantity of such 
waste to be disposed of. It therefore requires the collection of WEEE and the recovery and reuse/recycling of waste collected.  
 
The Commission's proposal does not change the ke y elements of the existing Directive, such 
as: G/TBT/N/EEC/248 
Page 2  
 
  - The existence of minimum WEEE collection targets and requirements for collection; 
- Separately collected WEEE should be treated according to Annex II; 
- The existence of minimum recy cling and recovery targets; 
- The directive is based on producer respons ibility, in line with the polluter pays 
principle of the Treaty; 
- Member States should encourage measures th at promote the design of electrical and 
electronic equipment (EEE) that facilitates re-use, dismantling and recovery; 
- Various pieces of information should be pr ovided for users of EEE. This includes the 
labelling of EEE with the wheeled bin;  
- Producers need to provide re -use and treatment informa tion on their products to re-
use centres, treatment and recycling facilities; 
- The producer of an EEE has to be clearly identifiable by a mark on the appliance and 
a mark on the appliance should show that  it was placed on  the market after 
13 August 2005;  
- Member States have to draw up a register of producers and collect information on an 
annual basis on WEEE quantities; 
- Member States have to inspect the proper implementation of the Directive.  
The proposal reinforces some of the existing requirements and proposes  measures to reduce 
unnecessary administrative burden or to improve  the implementation at of the Directive at 
national level. The main foll owing changes are proposed:  
- The minimum collection targets are changed (65% by weight of what has been placed 
on the market in the two preceding years on average); 
- Registration and reporting obligations for producers are harmonised and national 
producer registers need to be inter-operational;  
- Scope and definitions of the Directive are clarified; - A combined recycling and re-use target is introduced; 
- Recovery and recycling/reuse targets are included for medical devices; 
- Minimum inspection requireme nts are introduced for Memb er States to strengthen 
the enforcement of the Directive; 
- Member States, where appropriate, shoul d encourage producers to finance the 
complete costs of the separate collection; 
- Producers are allowed to show  purchasers at the time of the sale of new products the 
cost of collection, treatmen t and disposal of the product in an environmentally sound 
manner. 
 
8. Relevant documents:    
Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliame nt and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on 
waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Le xUriServ/LexUriServ.do?ur i=OJ:L:2003:037:0024:0038:EN:PDF. 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:   }  To be determined.  
   
10. Final date for comments:  90 days from date of Notification.  G/TBT/N/EEC/248 
 Page 3 
 
 
  11. Text available from: National enquiry point [  ], or addre ss, telephone and fax numbers, 
e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:    
European Commission 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  + (32) 2 299 80 43 
E-mail:  ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu 
The text is available on the EC-TBT Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/ 
  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0810:FIN:EN:PDF  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0810:FIN:FR:PDF  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0810:FIN:ES:PDF  
 
and:  http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2009/tbt/EEC/09_0425_00_e.pdf