Amended proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on waste statistics (presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty)

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1. On 9 March 2001, the Commission adopted its amended proposal for a "Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on Waste Statistics." [1], which was submitted to Parliament, pursuant to Article 285(1) of the EC Treaty.

[1] OJ C 180 E, 26.6.2001, p. 202.

2. The President of the Parliament referred the proposal to the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy for opinion. At its meeting of 11 July 2001 the Committee unanimously adopted the draft legislative resolution, subject to 28 amendments.

3. On 4 September 2001 the European Parliament adopted at First Reading all the 28 amendments proposed by the Committee.

4. The Commission accepts 13 of the 28 amendments:

* Amendments 1, 5, 17, 25, 26, 27 are accepted as they either clarify the text or aim at increasing comparability of data. They all add a minor burden to Member States' data reporting.

* Amendments 2 and 11 are accepted, where the Parliament proposes to delete the derogation time after adoption of the Regulation. However, a derogation period should be maintained for the new area added by the Parliament through amendments 15 and 20 below.

* Amendments 6 to 8 are accepted with the exception of the uniform methodology proposed in Article 3, paragraph 1.

* Amendments 15 and 20 extend the coverage of the statistics to the generation of waste in agriculture and fisheries. The Commission accepts the extension on condition that a transitional period is granted for Member States.

* Amendment 24 is accepted, through which annual data collection is extended to cover recovery operations. The Commission agrees with the Parliament that there is an increasing need to cover these activities by annual data collection.

5. For ten of the amendments, the Commission amends its proposal to take into partial account the concerns expressed by the Parliament:

* For amendments 3 and 12 relating to imports and exports of waste, the proposal to include such statistics as compulsory from the beginning is rejected. However, the Commission proposes that the deadline for finalising the pilot studies should be shortened. There is also a change to clarify that reporting of this area can become compulsory if it is so decided in accordance with Comitology procedures. This will ensure that statistics on imports and exports of waste are produced as soon as methodologies are developed in Member States.

* The reasoning behind amendment 4 is accepted. However, the Commission proposes another text with a clear reference to Decision 2000/532/EC, including an obligation for the Commission to adapt the annexes of the regulation in Comitology procedures.

* As for amendment 10, the Commission accepts to delete the text as in the amendment, but proposes to insert a similar but stricter text to meet the concern of the Parliament, under Comitology procedures in Article 6(c).

* Amendment 13 on the equal footing of two Committees is not accepted as only one Committee can be responsible. However, the role of the Technical Adaptation Committee is made clearer through a change to Article 7.

* Amendment 14 relates to reviewing possible duplication of reporting. The Commission agrees with the urgency of such reviewing. However, the Parliament amendment refers to "reporting year", which is not defined in the regulation. The paragraph is rephrased.

* Amendments 16, 22 and 23 are accepted by the Commission, but the text is reformulated to remain in line with the terminology used in Annex III.

* As to Amendment 18 on annual data collection for generation of waste instead of data collection every third year, the Commission agrees that annual data would be useful. However, the costs of data collection and the burden on enterprises must also be taken into account. The Commission has amended its proposal to data collection every second year to strike a better balance between the needs of data and the cost of collecting them.

6. The Commission is amending section 2, section 7(1) and section 8(1) of Annex II in order to clarify the text and avoid misinterpretation of the level of detail requested for production of results for recovery and disposal operations.

7. Acting under Article 250(2) of the EC Treaty, therefore, the Commission amends its proposal for a regulation as outlined above.

1999/0010 (COD)

Amended proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on waste statistics

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission [2],

[2] OJ C 87, 29.3.1999, p. 22.

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee [3],

[3] OJ C 329, 17.11.1999, p. 17.

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty,

Whereas:

(1) regular Community statistics on the production and management of waste from businesses and private households are required by the Community for monitoring the implementation of the waste policy; this creates the basis for monitoring compliance with the principles of maximisation of recovery and safe disposal. Statistical instruments are still required, however, to assess compliance with the principle of waste prevention and to be able to establish a link between waste generation data and global, national and regional inventories of resource use;

(2) the terms for the description of waste and waste management need to be defined in order to ensure the comparability of results in waste statistics;

(3) waste policy has led to the establishment of a set of principles to be followed by waste producing units and waste management; whereas this requires the monitoring of waste at different points of the waste stream generation, collection, recovery and disposal;

(4) Council Regulation (EC) 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community Statistics [4] constitutes the reference framework for the provisions of this Regulation;

[4] OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, p. 1

(5) to guarantee comparable results, waste statistics should be produced in accordance with the determined breakdown, in an appropriate form and within a fixed period of time from the end of the reference year;

(6) in accordance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty, the objectives of the proposed measure, namely to establish a framework for the production of Community statistics on waste cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, by reason of the need to define terms of description of waste and waste management so as to ensure the comparability of the statistics supplied by the Member States, and can therefore be better achieved by the Community; whereas this Regulation confines itself to the minimum required in order to achieve those objectives and does not go beyond what is necessary for that purpose;

(7) Member States may need a transition period for the adaptation or establishment of their statistics on waste for the economic activities 'Agriculture, hunting and forestry' and 'Fishing';

(8) the measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation are measures of general scope within the meaning of Article 2 of Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise if implementing powers conferred on the Commission [5], they should be adopted by use of the regulatory procedure provided for in Article 5 of that Decision;

[5] OJ L 184 17.7.1999, p. 23

(9) the Statistical Programme Committee has been consulted by the Commission;

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Objectives

1. The objective of this Regulation is to establish a framework for the production of Community statistics on the generation, recovery and disposal of waste.

2. Member States and the Commission, within their respective fields of competence, shall produce Community statistics on the generation, recovery and disposal of waste, excluding radioactive waste, covered by other legislation.

3. The statistics shall cover the following areas:

(a) Generation of waste according to Annex I;

(b) Recovery and disposal of waste according to Annex II;

4 In compiling the statistics, Member States and the Commission shall observe the mainly substance-oriented statistical classification, as set out in Annex III to this Regulation.

5 The Commission shall, in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 7, establish a table of equivalence between the statistical classification of Annex III and the list of waste established by Commission Decision 2000/532/EC [6].

[6] OJ L 266, 6.9.2000, p. 3

Article 2

Definitions

1. For the purpose of this regulation:

(a) "Waste" shall mean any substance or object as defined in Article 1 (a) of Council Directive 75/442/EEC [7] as amended;

[7] OJ L 194, 25.7.1975, p. 39

(b) "Separately collected fractions of waste" shall mean household and similar waste selectively collected in homogeneous fractions by public services, non-profit organisations and private enterprises acting in the field of organised waste collection;

(c) "Recycling" shall refer to the definition given in Art. 3(7) of Council Directive 94/62/EC; [8]

[8] OJ L 365, 31.12.1994, p. 10

(d) "Recovery" shall mean any of the operations provided for in Annex II.B to Directive 75/442/EEC as amended [9]

[9] OJ L 135, 6.6.1996, p. 32

(e) "Disposal" shall mean any of the operations provided for in Annex II.A to Directive 75/442/EEC as amended; [10]

[10] OJ L 135, 6.6.1996, p. 32

(f) "Recovery or disposal facility" shall mean a facility that requires a permit or registration persuant to article 9,10, or 11 of Council Directive 75/442/EC;

(g) "Hazardous waste" shall mean any waste as defined in Article 1 (4) of Council Directive 91/689/ EEC; [11]

[11] OJ L 377, 31.12.1991, p: 20

(h) "Non-hazardous waste" shall mean waste which is not covered by point (g);

(i) "Incineration" shall mean thermal treatment of waste in an incineration plant as defined in Article 3(4) or a co-incineration plant as defined in Article 3(5) of European Parliament and Council Directive 2000/76/EC of 4 December 2000 on the incineration of waste; [12]

[12] OJ L 332, 28.12.2000, p. 91.

(j) "Landfill" shall mean a waste disposal site as defined in Article 2 (g) of Council Directive 1999/31/EC; [13]

[13] OJ L 182, 16.7.1999, p. 1

(k) "Capacity of waste incineration facilities" shall mean the maximum capacity to incinerate waste in tonnes per annum, or in gigajoules;

(l) "Capacity of waste recycling facilities" shall mean the maximum capacity to recycle waste in tonnes per annum;

(m) "Capacity of landfills" shall mean the remaining capacity (at the end of the data reference year) of the landfill facility to dispose of waste in the future measured in cubic meters;

(n) "Capacity of other disposal facilities" shall mean the capacity of the facility to dispose of waste measured in tonnes per annum.

Article 3

Collection of data

1. Member States shall, whilst complying with conditions as to quality and accuracy, acquire the data necessary for the specification of the characteristics listed in Annexes I and II by means either of:

- surveys; [14]

[14] In accordance with the subsidiarity principle, the question whether such surveys are to be compulsory or not is to be decided by the Member States.

- administrative or other sources, such as the reporting obligations for Community legislation on waste management;

- statistical estimation procedures on the basis of samples or waste-related estimators, or

- a combination of these means.

In order to reduce response burdens, the national authorities and the Commission shall, subject to the limits and the conditions fixed by each Member State and by the Commission in their respective spheres of competence, have access to administrative data sources.

2. In order to reduce the administrative burden on small enterprises, enterprises of fewer than 10 employees are excluded from surveys, unless they contribute significantly to the generation of waste.

3. Member States shall produce statistical results, following the breakdown stipulated in Annexes I and II.

4. The exclusion referred to in paragraph (2) must be consistent with the coverage and quality objectives as referred to in Section 7, paragraph 1, of Annexes I and II.

5. Member States shall transmit the results, including confidential data, to Eurostat in an appropriate format and within a set period of time from the end of the respective reference periods, as laid down in Annexes I and II.

6. The treatment of confidential data and the transmission of such data as provided for in Article 3 (5) shall be carried out in accordance with the existing Community provisions governing statistical confidentiality.

Article 4

Transitional period

1 During a transitional period, which may not exceed two years, the Commission may at the request of the Member States and in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 7, grant a derogation from the provisions of Annex I , Section 8 (1.1), Item 1 (Agriculture, hunting and forestry) and Item 2 (Fishing)

2 This derogation can be granted only for the data of the first reference year.

Article 5

Import and Export of Waste

1. The Commission will draw up a programme for pilot studies to be carried out on a voluntary basis by Member States on the Import and Export of waste. The pilot studies will aim to assess the relevance and feasibility of obtaining data, and to evaluate the costs and benefits of collecting the data, and the burden on business.

2. The Commission programme for pilot studies must be consistent with the contents of Annexes I and II, particularly the aspects related to the scope and coverage of wastes, waste categories for the classification of waste, reference years and periodicity taking into account the reporting obligations under Council Regulation 259/93 [15].

[15] OJ L 030, 6.2.1993, p.1

3. The Commission shall finance up to 100% of the costs for conducting the pilot studies.

4. On the basis of the conclusions of these pilot studies, the Commission will inform the European Parliament and the Council of the possibilities of compiling statistics for the activities and characteristics covered by the pilot studies for import and export of waste. The Commission will adopt the necessary implementation measures, in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 7 of this Regulation.

5. The pilot studies should be conducted within three years after the entry into force of this Regulation.

Article 6

Implementation measures

The measures necessary for the implementation of this instrument, relating to the subject matters referred to below shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 7. These shall include measures:

(a) for adjustment to economic and technical developments concerning the collection and statistical processing of data, the processing and the transmission of results;

(b) for adaptation of the specifications listed in Annexes I, II and III;

(c) for the production of results in accordance with Article 3(2), (3) and (4); taking into account the economic structures and technical conditions in a Member State, measures may allow an individual Member State not to report certain items in the breakdown, provided the impact on the quality of the statistics is proven to be limited. In all cases, where exemptions are given, the total amount of waste for each item listed in sections 2(3) and 8(1) of Annex I shall be compiled.

(d) for definition of the proper quality evaluation criteria and the contents of the quality reports as referred to in Section 7 of Annexes I and II of the present Regulation;

(e) for setting out the appropriate format for the transmission of results by Member States within 2 years from the date of entry into force of this Regulation;

(f) for compiling the list for granting transitional periods and derogations to Member States as specified in Article 4.

(g) for implementation of the results of the pilot studies, as specified in Article 5(4), Annex I Section 2(4) and Annex II Section 8(3).

Article 7

Comitology

1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Statistical Programme Committee established by Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom [16].

[16] OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47

2. Where reference is made to this article, Article 5 of Decision 1999/468/EC [17] shall apply, in compliance with Articles 7(3) and 8 thereof. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months.

[17] OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23

3 The Commission shall transmit to the Committee for adaptation to scientific and technical progress of EC legislation, instituted by Directive 91/156/EEC [18] on waste, the draft measures that it intends to submit to the Statistical Programme Committee.

[18] OJ L 78, 26.3.1991, p. 32

Article 8

Report

1. The Commission shall, within five years after the date of entry into force of this Regulation and every three years thereafter, submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the statistics compiled pursuant to this Regulation and in particular on their quality and the burden on business.

2. The Commission is invited, within two years after the date of entry into force of this Regulation, to submit to the European Parliament and the Council a proposal abolishing overlapping reporting obligations.

Article 9

Entry Into Force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, [...]

For the European Parliament For the Council

The President The President

ANNEX I

Generation of waste

Section 1

Coverage

The statistics are to be compiled for all activities classified within the coverage of Sections A to Q of NACE Rev. 1 [19]. These Sections cover all economic activities.

[19] OJ L 83, 3.4.1993, p.1

This annex also covers:

* waste generated by households;

* waste arising from recovery and/or disposal operations.

Section 2

Waste categories

1. The waste categories for which statistics on waste generation are to be compiled are derived as aggregation from the European Waste Catalogue (EWC).

2. Each item in the EWC is attributed to the aggregated substance-oriented waste list tabled in paragraph 3 of this Section. The transposition table between EWC and substance-oriented aggregation is listed in Annex III.

3. Statistics on the following waste categories are to be produced:

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4. Taking into account the reporting obligation under the European Parliament and Council Directive 94/62/EC, [20] the Commission shall draw up a programme for pilot studies to be carried out on a voluntary basis by Member States in order to assess the relevance of including packaging waste entries (EWC-Stat Version 2) in the breakdown list above. The Commission shall finance up to 100% of the costs for these pilot studies. On the basis of the conclusions of these pilot studies, the Commission will adopt the necessary implementation measures in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 7 of this Regulation.

[20] OJ L 365, 31.12.1994, p.10.

Section 3

Characteristics

1. Characteristics for the waste categories:

For each waste category listed in Section 2 (3), the quantity of waste generated shall be compiled.

2. Regional characteristics:

Population or dwellings served by a collection scheme for mixed household and similar waste (NUTS II level).

Section 4

Reporting unit

1. The reporting unit to be used for all waste categories is 1000 tonnes of (normal) wet waste. For the waste categories "sludge" an additional figure for dry matter should be provided.

2. The reporting unit for regional characteristics should be the percentage of the population or dwellings.

Section 5

First reference year and periodicity

1. The first reference year is the second calendar year following the publication of the Regulation in the Official Journal.

2. Member States shall furnish data for every second year after the first reference year.

Section 6

Transmission of results to Eurostat

The results are to be transmitted within 18 months after the end of the reference year.

Section 7

Report on the coverage and quality of statistics

1. For each item listed in Section 8 (activities and households), Member States shall indicate the percentage to which the compiled statistics represent the universe of the respective item. The minimum requirement for the coverage shall be defined in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 7.

2. Member States shall give a quality report, indicating the degree of precision for the collected data. A description shall be given on the estimations, aggregations or exclusions, and the way these procedures affect the distribution of waste categories, listed in Section 2 (3) by economic activities and households, as referred in Section 8.

3. The Commission shall include the coverage and quality reports in the report provided for in Article 8 of this Regulation.

Section 8

Production of results

1. The results for the characteristics listed in Section 3 (1), are to be compiled for:

1.1 The following Sections, Divisions, Groups and Classes of NACE Rev. 1:

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1.2 Households

20 // Waste generated by households

2 For economic activities, statistical units are Local Units or Kind of Activity Units, as defined in Council Regulation 696/93/EEC [21] on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community, according to each Member State's statistical system.

[21] OJ L 76, 30.3. 1993, p. 2

In the quality report, to be produced under Section 7, a description of how the chosen statistical unit affects the groupings of NACE-Rev 1 data distribution should be included.

ANNEX II

Recovery and Disposal of Waste

Section 1

Coverage

1. The statistics are to be compiled for all recovery and disposal facilities which run any of the operations referred to in Section 8(2) and which belong to or are part of the economic activities according to the groupings of NACE-Rev.1, mentioned in Annex I, Section 8 (1.1).

2. Facilities whose waste treatment activities are limited to the recycling of waste on the site where the waste was generated, are not covered by this Annex.

Section 2

Waste categories

The list of waste categories for which the statistics are to be compiled, according to the recovery or disposal operations as referred to in section 8(2), are the following:

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Section 3

Characteristics

1. The characteristics, for which the statistics are to be compiled on recovery and disposal operations, as referred to in Section 8(2) are set out in the table below.

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Section 4

Reporting unit

The reporting unit to be used for all waste categories is 1000 tonnes of (normal) wet waste. For the waste categories "sludge" an additional figure for dry matter should be provided.

Section 5

First reference year and periodicity

1. The first reference year is the second calendar year following the publication of the Regulation in the Official Journal.

2. Member states shall furnish data for every year, after the reference year.

Section 6

Transmission of results to Eurostat

The results are to be transmitted within 18 months of the end of the calendar year of the reference period.

Section 7

Report on the coverage and quality of statistics

1. For the characteristics listed in Section 3, and for each item amongst the types of operation listed in Section 8, paragraph 2, Member States shall indicate the percentage to which the compiled statistics represent the universe of waste of the respective item. The minimum requirement for the coverage shall be defined in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 7.

2. For the characteristics listed in Section 3, paragraph 2, Member States shall give a quality report, indicating the degree of precision for the collected data.

3. The Commission shall include the coverage and quality reports in the report provided for in Article 8 of this Regulation.

Section 8

Production of results

1. The results are to be compiled for each item amongst the types of recovery and disposal operation, as specified below, according to the characteristic 2 20 as referred to in Section 3 and the operation specific waste categories listed in Section 2.

2. List of Recovery and Disposal Operations; the codes refer to the codes in the Annexes of the Council Directive 75/442/EEC on waste as amended by 91/156/EEC and adapted by Commission Decision 96/350/EC [22]:

[22] OJ L 135, 6.6.1996, p. 32

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3. The Commission shall draw up a programme for pilot studies, to be carried out on a voluntary basis by Member States. The pilot studies will aim to assess the relevance and feasibility of obtaining data on the amounts of waste conditioned by preparatory operations, as defined in Annexes II.A and II.B of Council Directive 75/442/EEC and adapted by Commission Decision 96/350/EC [23]. The Commission shall finance up to 100 % of the costs for conducting these pilot studies. Based on the conclusions of these pilot studies, the Commission will adopt the necessary implementation measures, in accordance with the procedure set out in Article 6 of this Regulation.

[23] OJ L 135, 6.6.1996, p. 32

4. Statistical units are Local Units or Kind of Activity Units, as defined in Council Regulation 696/93 EEC [24] on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community, according to each Member State's statistical system.

[24] OJ L 76, 30.3.1993, p. 1

In the quality report, to be produced under Section 7, a description of how the chosen statistical unit affects the groupings of NACE-Rev 1 data distribution should be included.

ANNEX III

Transposition table

Related to ANNEX I, Section 2(2) and ANNEX II, Section 2

EWC-Stat Rev.2 (substance oriented waste statistical classification)

European Waste Catalogue (EWC)

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Note: Hazardous wastes positions have been classified according to Council Decision 94/904/EC (22 December 1994). [25]

[25] OJ L 356, 31 December 1994, p. 14