Proposal for a Council Decision amending Commission Decision of 3 May 2000 replacing Commission Decision 94/3/EC establishing a list of wastes pursuant to Article 1(A) of Council Directive 75/442/EEC on waste and Council Decision 94/904/EC establishing a list of hazardous waste pursuant to Article 1(4) of Council Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste
Date: 2000-09-08
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: dangerous substance, environmental protection, motor car, waste management

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Brussels, 08.09.2000
COM(2000) 546 final

Proposal for a

COUNCIL DECISION

amending Commission Decision of 3 May 2000 replacing Commission Decision 94/3/EC
establishing a list of wastes pursuant to Article 1(a) of Council Directive 75/442/EEC on
waste and Council Decision 94/904/EC establishing a list of hazardous waste pursuant to
Article 1(4) of Council Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste

(presented by the Commission)

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EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

The purpose of this Decision is to amend Commission Decision of 3 May 2000
replacing Commission Decision 94/3/EC establishing a list of wastes pursuant to
Article 1(a) of Council Directive 75/442/EEC on waste and Council Decision
94/904/EC establishing a list of hazardous waste pursuant to Article 1(4) of Council
Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste. The amendment is proposed in light of
notifications from Member States pursuant to the second indent of Article 1(4) of the
Directive on hazardous waste. This Article indicates that any waste which is not
listed in Decision 94/904/EC and which is considered by a Member State to display
one or more of the characteristics of Annex III to Directive 91/689/EEC is a
hazardous waste for the purpose of that Directive. Member States shall notify these
cases to the Commission and these shall be reviewed in accordance with the
procedure laid down in Article 18 of Directive 75/442/EEC with a view to adaptation
of the list.

The Commission had submitted to the Committee, set up in accordance with Article
18 of Directive 75/442/EEC, a draft of the measures to be taken. This draft envisaged
replacing Commission Decisions 94/3/EC establishing a list of waste pursuant to
Article 1(a) of Council Directive 75/442/EEC on waste and Council Decision
94/904/EC by one new list. This new list
included amendments necessary to
incorporate 282 notifications from Member States.

On 15 December 1999 the Committee endorsed the draft on all modifications except
a proposal for the modification of entry 16 01 04 discarded vehicles in Decision
94/3/EC into an entry 16 01 04 end-of-life vehicles classified as hazardous waste. As
required by the procedure in Article 18 of Directive 75/442/EEC the modification of
list with the exception of 16 01 04 has been adopted as Commission Decision.
According to the same procedure in Article 18 a Proposal for the classification of
end-of-life vehicles is submitted to the Council. If the Council has not acted within
three months of the Proposal being submitted to it, the measures will be adopted by
the Commission.

The Committee pursuant to Article 18 of Directive 75/442/EEC has already accepted
a new entry 16 01 06 end-of-life vehicles, drained of liquids and emptied of other
hazardous components for the new integrated waste list to be included as a non-
hazardous waste.

The Proposal for the review of entry 16 01 04 from the Commission which was not
accepted by the Committee contains two elements. The first element is proposing to
use the term end-of-life vehicle in stead of discarded vehicle. This would be
consistent with the terminology used in the recently adopted European Parliament
and Council Directive on end-of-life vehicles. The second element is to include end-
of-life vehicles in the list of hazardous waste unless the dangerous substances and
components that are typically present in an end-of-life vehicle have been removed.
Examples of these substances are engine, gear and lubrication oils, brake fluids and
lead acid batteries, all of which are classified as hazardous waste in Decision
94/904/EC. If not removed prior to recovery or disposal, these substances will be
released into the environment.

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The Directive on end-of-life vehicles requires the removal of these substances prior
treatment. The proposed classification of end-of-life vehicles is
to subsequent
therefore in line with and re-enforces the provisions in this Directive.

Several Member States were reluctant to accept the inclusion of end-of-life vehicles
as hazardous waste because they anticipate problems with the management of the
vehicles.
It would require installations that receive these vehicles would be subject
to the provisions of the Directive on hazardous waste. In particular the fact that this
would require these installations to be subject to the permit system for hazardous
waste was deemed problematic. The argument that an end-of-life vehicle should be
classified as hazardous on the basis of the Annexes of Directive 91/689/EEC was not
contested.

The assessment by the Commission of the arguments put forward by the Member
States during the deliberations on the Commission Proposal
is the following.
Possible problems with the permit system cannot be accepted as a reason to consider
a waste that displays the properties of a hazardous waste as a non-hazardous waste.
The fact that end-of-life vehicles that contain liquids and hazardous components
cause the vehicle to display hazard characteristics listed in Annex III of Directive
91/689/EEC was not contested. Therefore the Commission considers the inclusion of
end-of-life vehicles as proposed to the Member States in the Committee still justified
and submits a Proposal to the Council to include this waste into the list as hazardous
waste.

The suggested date of entry into effect is 1 January 2002. This is the same date as the
entry into effect of the Decision. This would allow Member States to adopt national
measures for the implementation of both Decisions with one single instrument. This
will facilitate the application of the measures by the Competent Authorities and the
economic operators since they will in practice only be confronted with one change of
legislation.

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Proposal for a

COUNCIL DECISION

amending Commission Decision of 3 May 2000 replacing Commission Decision 94/3/EC
establishing a list of wastes pursuant to Article 1(a) of Council Directive 75/442/EEC on
waste and Council Decision 94/904/EC establishing a list of hazardous waste pursuant to
Article 1(4) of Council Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Council Directive 91/689/EEC of 12 December 1991 on hazardous waste1,
and in particular Article 1(4) thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

A Community list of hazardous waste was established by Council Decision
94/904/EC2 and this Decision has been replaced by Commission Decision.

Several Member States have notified end-of-life vehicles, not drained of liquids or
other dangerous components as waste which they consider to display one of more of
the properties listed in Annex III to Directive 91/689/EEC and have requested to list
them as hazardous waste with the list set up under Article 1(4) of Directive
91/689/EEC.

Article 1(4) of Directive 91/689/EEC requires the Commission to examine these
notifications from Member States with a view to amending the list of hazardous
wastes.

The Commission is assisted in this task by the Committee established by Article 18 of
Directive 75/442/EEC on waste3.

The measures laid down in this Decision were not in accordance with the opinion
expressed by the aforementioned Committee and could therefore not be included in
Commission Decision.

The procedure of Article 18 foresees that in such a case the Commission submits a
proposal relating to the measures to be taken to the Council.

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OJ L 377, 31.12.1991, p.20. Directive as last amended by Directive 94/31/EC (OJ L 168, 2.7.1994, p.48).
OJ L 356, 31.12.1994, p. 14
OJ L 78, 26.03.1991, p. 32

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HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

The Annex to Commission Decision of 3 May 2000 replacing Commission Decision 94/3/EC
establishing a list of wastes pursuant to Article 1(a) of Council Directive 75/442/EEC on
waste and Council Decision 94/904/EC establishing a list of hazardous waste pursuant to
Article 1(4) of Council Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste is amended as follows.

Entry number 16 01 04 discarded vehicles is replaced by

’16 01 04* end-of-life vehicles’.

Article 2

Member States shall take the measures necessary to comply with this Decision not later than 1
January 2002.

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Article 3

Done at Brussels,

For the Council
The President

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