WRITTEN QUESTION E-0840/03

by Ria Oomen-Ruijten (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(18 March 2003)

Subject: Implementation of the end-of-life vehicles directive

In reply to questions raised in the Environment Committee on 27 January 2003, the Commission said that only five Member States had notified it of the entry into force of the necessary legislation and administrative provisions to comply with European Parliament and Council Directive 2000/53/EC(1) of 18 September 2000 on end-of-life vehicles. This means that ten Member States are not in compliance.

Article 7(2)(b) of this Directive says that no later than 1 January 2015, for all end-of life vehicles, the reuse and recovery shall be increased to a minimum of 95 % by an average weight per vehicle and year. Within the same time limit, the re-use and recycling shall be increased to a minimum of 85 % by an average weight per vehicle and year.

Member States are also required to send a report to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive at three-year intervals. The report is to be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire (Article 9, first paragraph). The first report covers the three-year period beginning on 21 April 2002.

In the questionnaire that the Commission drew up by decision of 17 October 2001, the Member States are invited, among other things, to indicate whether the necessary measures have been taken to ensure that undertakings set up systems to collect all end-of-life vehicles and, as far as technically feasible, waste from used parts removed during car repairs (question 1.7).

1. Can the Commission say whether undertakings in each of the Member States have already introduced systems for the collection of all end-of-life vehicles, and if so what systems?

2. Have any Member States adopted stricter environmental measures for recycling than the provisions of the Directive require, so as to achieve the percentages stipulated in the Directive before 2015?

(1) OJ L 269, 21.10.2000, p. 34.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(5 May 2003)

1. Only six Member States (Denmark, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden) have officially communicated their transposition measures to the Commission. Therefore, at this moment the Commission has no clear overview of the specificities of the collection systems set up in each Member State. The Commission is currently assessing the communicated national transposition measures, including the transposition of Article 5 on their conformity with the Directive. In case of incorrect implementation, the Commission will of course address this with the Member State concerned, in line with the powers conferred to it by the EC Treaty.

2. Some Member States have adopted more stringent national measures for recycling than the Directive requires. The Netherlands, for example, requires producers and importers to attain a 95 % reuse/recovery rate and a 85 % reuse/recycling rate by 1 January 2007,

instead of 1 January 2015 as stated by the Directive. In Italy, a voluntary commitment signed in 1997 between the economic operators and the Environment Ministry (and amended in 1998) foresees the achievement of a reuse and recycling rate of 90 % by 2015 (5 % higher that the target of the Directive). Sweden required reuse and recovery targets of 85 % already, to be met by 2002, anticipating the reuse and recovery targets of 95 % to be achieved by 2015.