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

On 27 January 1999, the Commission adopted its proposal for a "Draft Council Regulation on Waste Management Statistics." [1] On 22 September 1999, the Economic and Social Committee delivered a favourable opinion on the proposal. [2] Between June 1999 and September 2000, a Council Working Party discussed this text on five separate occasions. In the last of these meetings (held on 29 September 2000), the participants in the Working Party reached a broad consensus on the amendments made to the Commission proposal, as reflected in its "Draft proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to statistics on waste." [hereinafter "Working Party's consensus draft"]. [3] The amendments proposed by the Council Working Party focus mainly on the reduction of data requirements and the provision of greater flexibility in data reporting for Member States, which either improve the original proposal or are at least deemed acceptable to the Commission.

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

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

[3] Council of the European Union, 9868/2/00/Rev2, ECO179/ENV213/CODEC497, 11 October 2000

In view of the nature and number of the amendments, the level of consensus reached by the Council Working Party, and in order to facilitate the codecision procedure, it is appropriate that the Commission submit a revised proposal for the Regulation. Accordingly, the present document constitutes the Commission's revised proposal, which would replace the original proposal. The revised proposal maintains the logic of the original proposal. Moreover, the revised proposal is almost identical to the Working Party's consensus draft. The only significant difference between the two is the periodicity of data collection for waste treatment, as discussed below.

Specifically, the revised proposal differs from the original proposal, and from the Working Party's consensus draft, in the following respects:

1. Periodicity

The Commission's revised proposal maintains a periodicity of one year for a part of the new Annex II (the annex covers recovery and disposal of waste). In particular, information is to be obtained from specialist waste disposal and incineration operators on an annual basis, and information on non-specialized recovery and disposal facilities on a three-year basis. A set of annual data on waste disposal and incineration is indispensable for establishing and evaluating waste policy, and for capacity planning of waste treatment facilities. Adequate and timely measures of waste treatment policies will not be possible if information is provided only once every three years, as proposed in the Working Party's consensus draft. Incorrect or insufficient measures in this field could lead to unnecessarily high costs through sub-optimal investments.

With respect to this provision, the revised proposal is more restrictive than the position taken by the Commission in its reservation in the Working Party's consensus draft, as it focuses only on waste management facilities for annual data collection. This will provide core waste treatment data for regular policy evaluation and policy measures. And at the same time allow Member States to limit annual surveys to a small group of specialised enterprises. By using sampling procedures, administrative or other sources for obtaining the information, it will be possible for Member States to produce the statistics at low cost and with limited response burden.

2. Structure of the annexes

The revised proposal accepts the modification to the structure of the annexes suggested by the Working Party's consensus draft. Accordingly, the revised proposal contains three annexes:

Annex I: Generation of waste;

Annex II: Recovery and Disposal of waste; and

Annex III: Transposition table between the European Waste Catalogue (EWC) and the 'EWC-stat V2' (which defines the waste categories to be used in the Community statistics on waste).

Annex I now covers only the generation of waste, by waste category and by economic activity, households included (2 dimensional matrix: 'waste categories' X 'economic activity'). In contrast, the original proposal also called for data on the method of recovery from the generated amount of waste (3 dimensional matrix: 'waste categories' X 'economic activity' X 'recovery operation'). The link between the economic activity of the waste generator and the waste recovery method is lost through this simplification. However, it was concluded from the discussions in the Council Working Party that the data requests were too burdensome. The Commission has therefore accepted the simplification, even though the possibility to track waste streams through the economy may be weakened.

The separate annex on the Collection of Municipal Waste was merged with Annex I in the Working Party's consensus draft, which has been adopted in the revised proposal. The data requirements are, however, mainly incorporated in Annex I (Generation of waste by households and similar waste by economic activity) and partially in Annex II ( Recovery and Disposal of Waste).

Annex II of the revised proposal also includes the recovery operations previously included in Annex I. However, Internal Recycling ('recycling of waste on the site where the waste was generated') has been deleted, thereby further simplifying data collection requirements.

3. Pilot Studies

The Commission has accepted the Working Party's consensus draft's transfer of some areas from obligatory reporting to pilot studies. These areas are:

Import and export of waste (Article 5);

Packaging waste (Annex I, Section 2, Paragraph 4); and

Preparatory operations prior to treatment of waste (Annex II, Section 8, Paragraph 3).

For these areas, Member States can, on a voluntary basis, participate in pilot studies, to be financed by the Commission, to assess the relevance and feasibility of obtaining data. The studies should take into account reporting obligations under relevant legislation. [4] The results of these pilot studies may lead to subsequent proposals to amend the Regulation.

[4] Council Regulation 259/93 (Import and Export of Waste); Council Directive 94/62/EC (Packaging); Annex IIa and IIb in Commission Decision 96/350/EC (pre-treatment operations)

4. Increased 'flexibility'

With respect to Annexes I and II, the revised proposal accepts the text of the Working Party's consensus draft to the effect that not all the cells in the matrixes must be filled with data. Article 3(3) of the revised proposal states: "given that economic structures and technical conditions relating to waste management schemes differ in Member States, a decision by an individual Member State not to report certain items in the breakdown may be accepted . . ." The Commission has accepted this change, recognizing that it allows a flexible approach; at the same time, however, it recognizes that there is a risk of incomplete data sets. Rules for interpretation of this provision are covered by the implementation measures in Article 6.

Further flexibility is introduced in Annex I, Section 8(2) and Annex II, Section 8(4) of the revised proposal, which allows Member States the freedom of choice with respect to two statistical units: Local Unit, or KAU.

5. Other substantive amendments

Further amendments made by the Council, which are included in the Commission's revised proposal, are the following:

Legal basis: In the first "Having Regard" clause, the legal basis for the proposal has been changed from Art. 213 to Art. 285, in accordance with the requirements of the Amsterdam Treaty;

Comitology: In Article 7, the Management procedure has been replaced by the Regulatory procedure; moreover, a provision has been added that the Committee for the Adaptation to Scientific and Technical Progress of EC Legislation (TAC) will be informed about implementation measures.

SME : In Article 3(2), enterprises with less than 10 employees have been excluded from coverage, unless they contribute significantly to the total waste generated.

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 [5],

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

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee [6],

[6] 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 three principles - waste prevention, maximisation of recovery and safe disposal - for waste policy;

(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 [7] constitutes the reference framework for the provisions of this Regulation;

[7] 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;

(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 June 28 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise if implementing powers conferred on the Commission [8], they should be adopted by use of the regulatory procedure provided for in Article 5 of that Decision;

[8] 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, which is already 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;

In compiling the statistics, Member States and the Commission shall observe the equivalence between the European Waste Catalogue (EWC) established by Commission Decision 94/3/EC [9] and the substance-oriented aggregation, as set out in Annex III to this Regulation.

[9] OJ L 5, 7.1.1994, p. 15

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 [10] as amended;

[10] 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; [11]

[11] 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 [12]

[12] 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; [13]

[13] 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; [14]

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

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

(i) "Landfill" shall mean a waste disposal site as defined in Article 2 (g) of Council Directive 1999/31/EC; [15]

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

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

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

(l) "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.

(m) "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 of:

- surveys; [16]

[16] 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;

- statistical estimation procedures; 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 less 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 . Given that economic structures and technical conditions relating to waste management schemes differ in the Member States, a decision by an individual Member State not to report certain items in the breakdown may be accepted, provided it is justified in the quality reports mentioned in Annex I and II. In all cases, the total amount of waste for each item listed in sections 2(3) and 8(1) of Annex I shall be compiled.

4. The exclusions referred to in paragraphs (2) and (3) 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 Section 5 of Annex I and II, wherever the national statistical systems require major adaptations.

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 [17].

[17] 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 may make a recommendation for a new Annex.

5. The pilot studies should be conducted within three years after the first reference year.

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);

(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 [18].

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

2. Where reference is made to this article, Article 5 of Decision 1999/468/EC [19] 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.

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

3 The Commission shall transmit the measures submitted to the Statistical Programme Committee to the Committee for adaptation to scientific and technical progress of EC legislation instituted by Directive 91/156/EEC [20] related to waste.

[20] 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 shall, where appropriate, within three years after the date of entry into force of this Regulation, 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 the sections C to Q, except Division 12, of NACE REV. 1 [21]. These Sections cover all economic activities, except agriculture, hunting, forestry (A) and fishing (B), which are outside the domain of this Annex.

[21] 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:

>TABLE POSITION>

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4. Taking into account the reporting obligation under the European Parliament and Council Directive 94/62/EC, [22] 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.

[22] 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 third 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:

>TABLE POSITION>

1.2 Households

18 // 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 [23] on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community, according to each Member State's statistical system.

[23] 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 each recovery or disposal operation as referred to in section 8(2), are the following:

>TABLE POSITION>

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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.

>TABLE POSITION>

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 according to the following scheme:

a. for every year, after the reference year, for the facilities which are referred to in Section 8(2) and run any of the operations under Incineration (item number 1 and 2) and Disposal (item number 4 and 5) as far as these facilities belong to or are part of the economic activities according to the groupings of NACE Rev 1: E, 75 and 90.

b. for every third year, after the reference year 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).

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 type 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 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 [24]:

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

>TABLE POSITION>

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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 [25]. 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 7 of this Regulation.

[25] 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 [26] on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community, according to each Member State's statistical system.

[26] 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)

>TABLE POSITION>

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>TABLE POSITION>

Note: Hazardous wastes positions have been classified according to Council Decision 94/904/EC (22 December 1994) OJ L 356, 31 December 1994, p. 14. [27]

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

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

1. Title of operation

Draft European Parliament and Council Regulation on Waste Statistics concerning waste generation, collection, recovery and disposal.

2. Budget heading(s) involved

B4-3 0 4 and B5-6 0 0

3. Legal basis

Article 285 of the Treaty establishing the European Community

4. Description of operation

4.1 General objective

The general objective of the European Parliament and Council Regulation is to establish a Community statistical infrastructure on waste generation, collection, recovery, and disposal in the Member States.

The Regulation includes pilot projects, which will be carried out by Member States. The results of these surveys may amend the Regulation.

4.2 Period covered and arrangements for renewal

From the point of data collection periodicity, waste statistics consists out of two parts:

(A) The data collection on waste incineration and final disposal by specialist waste disposal operators will be done yearly, starting for the reference year, which is two years after publication of the Regulation in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

(B) The data collection on waste generation, collection and recovery and waste incineration and final disposal other then by specialist waste disposal operators will be produced every third year, starting for the reference year, which is two years after publication of the Regulation in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

5. Classification of expenditure or revenue

5.1 Compulsory/Non-compulsory expenditure

5.2 Differentiated/Non-differentiated appropriations

5.3 Type of revenue involved

Sale of publications.

6. Type of expenditure or revenue

Subsidy:

Community contribution to the collection and preparation of data. The Community contribution can cover only a small part of costs for surveys, utilisation of administrative data and development of software tools.

The pilot projects will be financed by the Community up to 100% of the costs for conducting the surveys.

7. Financial impact

7.1 Method of calculating total cost of operation (relation between individual and total costs)

Costs will arise at the level of three different types of institutions: for businesses for giving information, for statistical offices in the Member States for collecting, preparing and reporting data (on national level and for the Commission) and for Eurostat for data preparation and reporting at European level.

The following activities in the Member States are necessary for the implementation:

- Utilisation of administrative sources and development of an information system on waste data;

- Survey on waste generation and collection (possibly);

- Survey on waste recovery and disposal (possibly);

- Specific pilot studies (voluntary)

- Information Technology hardware; and

- Processing of data and development of software tools.

Eurostat will support the necessary activities in the Member States as specified in the table below. The support takes into consideration the sequence of data reporting foreseen (annually for waste disposal and once in the three years for waste generation, collection and recovery).

Eurostat's costs:

For the development of the waste statistic system (including development of software, procedures for data validation and analysis, routinization of data change, methodological help to Member States, etc.) Eurostat requires 500 kEUR. For the regular production of the statistics, after the development of the system, 70 kEUR is required every 3-year period starting in 2005. And for the conducting of the pilot studies Eurostat requires 1 500 kEUR.

According to an agreement with DG ENV (budgetline B4-304), 50% of the total costs (2070 kEUR) is financed by DG ENV.

7.2 Itemised breakdown of cost

Commitment appropriations EUR million (at current prices)

>TABLE POSITION>

7.3 Operational expenditure for studies, experts etc. included in Part B of the budget

Commitment appropriations EUR million (at current prices)

>TABLE POSITION>

7.4 Schedule of commitment and payment appropriations

EUR million

>TABLE POSITION>

8. Fraud prevention measures

Community contributions will be paid on the basis of contracts and agreements concluded by the Commission, and payments will be made on the basis of progress reports and after transmission and validation of the survey results.

Statistics are regarded as an objective instrument for evaluating and monitoring Community action programmes in statistical terms, and hence reinforce the anti-fraud measures.

9. Elements of cost-effectiveness analysis

9.1 Specific and quantified objectives; target population

- Specific objectives: links with general objective

The main objective of the Draft Regulation on Waste Statistics is to establish a harmonized information system on waste generation, collection, and disposal in the EU. This system will provide data for the monitoring of the EU policy on waste management. In particular, it will be possible to detect in detail the generated waste types together with the economic actors responsible for the generation and the destination of wastes. Disparities between countries regarding different relative waste amounts will permit the formulation of concrete national waste policy aims to ensure basic environmental conditions in all Member States and to fulfil the EU objectives.

Target population:

Community Institutions: Council, European Parliament, Commission etc.;

Member States;

General public (businesses, science, associations etc.)

9.2 Grounds for the operation

European waste statistics, based today on a very broad voluntary survey and on some reporting obligations in relation to specific waste topics (e.g. used oils) is completely insufficient for delivering usable information to improve waste management. Without a legal basis the most important obstacles for achieving comparable waste management data cannot be surmounted.

These obstacles are a result, above all, of differences regarding structure and development of waste management in Member States (as well as from the use of different waste category lists for waste statistics in the european Union). The differences are a consequence of two factores: "natural" disparities (urban and non-urban areas, highly industrialized and more agricultural areas) and political decisions (highly centralized waste management on regional or national level versus local waste management).

9.3 Monitoring and evaluation of the operation

The implementation of the regulation will be monitored in the context of Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community statistics and will follow the procedures therein.

The draft Regulation stipulates that Member States have to deliver regularly waste data according to certain formats and quality conditions. Finally, Eurostat has to submit a tri-annual report to the Council on the implementation of the Regulation.

10. Administrative expenditure (Section III, Part A of the budget)

Actual mobilization of the necessary administrative resources will depend on the Commission's annual decision on the allocation of resources, taking into account the number of staff and additional amounts authorized by the budgetary authority.

Requirements in terms of human and administrative resources are covered within the allocation granted to the managing services.

10.1 Effect on the number of posts

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10.2 Overall financial impact of additional human resources

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10.3 Increase in other administrative expenditure as a result of the operation

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IMPACT ASSESSMENT FORM THE IMPACT OF THE PROPOSAL ON BUSINESS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES( SMEs)

Title of proposal

DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL REGULATION ON WASTE STATISTICS

Document reference number

98015

Introduction

Compared with the original Commission proposal for the 'Council Regulation on Waste Management Statistics' (COM 1999,31 final), the revised version has been changed in order to reduce data requirements and to provide greater flexibility in data reporting. Some of the more difficult areas (import and export of waste, packaging waste, preparatory waste treatment methods) have been transferred to pilot studies, the results of which will help assess the relevance and feasibility of obtaining data in these areas. The pilot studies are voluntary for Member States.

The differences between the proposals are further described in the Explanatory Memorandum.

The effect of the revised version on enterprises is positive as it will lead to less burdensome reporting than the original proposal. The impact of the new proposal on business is further described below.

The proposal

In order to carry out its tasks in the field of waste management as defined in the Fifth Environmental Action Programme and in the subsequent directives and regulations, the Commission needs to have comparable information on waste generated, waste recovered/recycled and waste finally disposed.

The statistical information available in the Member States is inadequate for the evaluation of the situation of waste management in most of the Member States. The available information is also inadequate for comparisons between Member States due to inconsistencies in definitions and classifications.

Most of the Member States are still building up waste control and information systems in accordance with national and European legislation. For this reason it is urgent to promote a clear definition of the information necessary at European level in order to avoid the establishment of information systems producing non-comparable data.

The impact on business

Three different data sets will be requested. These data sets are laid down in Annexes I and II of the revised draft Regulation and refer to different coverage of business sectors. This coverage is explained for each Annex as follows:

The business coverage for the topic 'generation of waste' (Annex I; 3-yearly reporting) includes all economic activities except the activities 'agriculture', 'hunting', 'fishing', 'forestry' and 'mining of uranium and thorium ores', according to NACE Rev 1 statistical classification of economic activities.

The business coverage for the topic 'recovery and disposal of waste' (Annex II) includes all recovery and disposal facilities which run a waste treatment operation and which belong to or are part of the economic activities as mentioned above. The reporting is annual for facilities which run the operations of incineration, co-combustion and landfilling (disposal) of waste as their main operating activity (specialists). For facilities running recovery operations or for which disposal operations are not their main activity (non-specialists), the reporting is 3-yearly. Facilities that run recycling operations for their own generated waste are excluded.

The Member States can acquire the data necessary for the fulfilment of the requirements of these statistics by means of surveys, administrative sources, or statistical estimation procedures. In cases where information on these treatment operations is already collected or will be collected in the near future by supervising authorities (either in accordance with EU legislation or in accordance with additional national legislation) there will be no additional burden on businesses.

In general it can be stated that it is principally administrations (municipalities, environmental protection agencies, waste control authorities) which are affected by the data collection activity connected to the revised draft Regulation on waste statistics. That means data have to be collected primarily from either administrations acting in the field of waste collection and treatment or from environmental control authorities.

Enterprises of less than 10 employees are excluded from the surveys, unless they contribute significantly to the generation of waste, according to Article 3, paragraph 2. As the revised draft Regulation on waste statistics does not request any data breakdown by employment or other size classes, there will be no necessity to cover all sizes of businesses. In general, the necessary data should be collected from large enterprises if no administrative sources are available. The waste generation of the SMEs can then be estimated under the assumption that the waste amounts are related to employment. The aim should be to reach the coverage criteria for each necessary survey by first including the large enterprises and then the medium and small enterprises.

The instrument 'coverage criteria' has been introduced to reduce the burden on businesses (responding to questionnaires) and to allow the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) to act in a flexible and cost-efficient way.

Data have to be produced at NUTS 1 and 2 level for waste recovery and disposal. There is already EU legislation containing data requests for facilities which are treating hazardous and non-hazardous wastes. The data requests for the Waste Statistics Regulation can be based on this information if it is suitable.

The Member States are free to choose to use surveys. Businesses selected will be asked to give information concerning waste generated and/or waste recovered or disposed of.

As the Regulation on waste statistics aims to harmonise waste reporting in general and focuses above all on existing administrative information, Member States can choose to base their statistics on administrative data already furnished by businesses to the competent authorities.

A priority aim of the proposal is to deliver information on waste amounts produced by waste types, and information on waste recycling by corresponding waste types and waste treatment facilities. This information will give a coherent overview of existing waste management and its potential which are now nearly hidden. It will thus help to optimise investments in waste management facilities. Coherent information from structural business statistics and from waste statistics will make it possible to increase the efficiency of production and waste management.

As already stated, according to Article 3, paragraph 2, of the proposal, enterprises with less than 10 employees are excluded from surveys necessary to fulfil the reporting requirements. In specific cases the minimum coverage may not be reached without the inclusion of small enterprises (less than 10 employees). In most of these cases hazardous waste is involved, the notification of which has usually been given to the authorities; no extra burden on enterprises is then imposed. Economic activities where smaller enterprises could contribute significantly to the waste generation are for instance 'Recycling (Nace 37)', and several activities in Nace F-Q, for instance 'Building completion', 'Maintenance and repair of motor vehicles', 'Wholesale in waste and scrap', 'Industrial cleaning', and 'Photographic activities'. The proposed Regulation is constructed to ensure that administrative data should be used for waste statistics.

Consultation

The following entities were consulted and positive comments received by them before adoption of the Commission proposal for the 'Council Regulation on Waste Management Statistics' (COM 1999,31 final): the SPC, DG ENV, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Topic Centre on Waste (ETC/W);

The proposal was presented several times to the regular FEBI-FEBS-EUROSTAT meeting on statistical information.

'The Economic and Social Committee' adopted its opinion on 22 September 1999.