WRITTEN QUESTION E-0415/02 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Collection and recovery from the Third World and destruction of unused toxic agricultural chemicals produced in the EU.
Date: 2002-02-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Nepal, chemical waste, developing countries, environmental protection, export (EU), export of waste, export restriction, hazardous waste, non-governmental organisation, waste disposal

6.2.2004

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Official Journal of the European Union

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(Information)

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

WRITTEN QUESTIONS WITH ANSWER

(2004/C 33 E/001)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0415/02

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(20 February 2002)

Subject: Collection and recovery from the Third World and destruction of unused toxic agricultural

chemicals produced in the EU

1.
Is the Commission aware that in recent decades large quantities of toxic agricultural chemicals which
are non-biodegradable or virtually so have been transported to the Third World, as part of development
aid or with the aim of dumping old stocks which were no longer required in countries with stronger
economies, as samples supplied by industry in order to promote sales or for the purpose of scientific
experiments?

2.
Is the Commission also aware that many of these old stocks have never been used, that by modern
standards they are regarded as hazardous and unusable, and that because of the way in which they have
been stored and packaged, these undesirable substances have escaped into the environment or will do so in
due course unless prompt measures are taken to prevent this?

3.
Does the Commission have any data which would make it possible to identify which businesses
within the EU produced and transported these toxic chemicals and what know-how they possess which
could be used to recover these substances and destroy them in a properly controlled manner?

4. What contacts does the Commission have on this subject with Greenpeace, which is carrying out a
campaign, inter alia in Nepal, to recover and destroy such substances?

How and to what extent are former suppliers or any other parties already helping to defuse this

5.
chemical time bomb?

6. What additional measures does the Commission consider necessary in order to ensure that such
substances are collected as comprehensively as possible, and what steps are being taken to this end?

Source: ‘2 Vandaag’, Dutch TV current affairs programme, 29 January 2002.

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(16 April 2002)

The Commission is conscious of the problem represented by the shipment of hazardous chemicals to
developing countries and particularly by the threats of obsolete pesticides to human health and the
environment.

All obsolete pesticides, being unfit for use must be considered as hazardous waste due to their dangerous
properties. The shipment of hazardous waste to non-Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
(OECD) countries is forbidden according to Council Regulation (EEC) No 259/93 of
Development

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6.2.2004

into and out of the
1 February 1993 on the supervision and control of shipments of waste within,
Community (1). This Regulation establishes a control regime and specific measures such as take back of the
waste by the exporting country in cases of waste illegally shipped. In this context pesticides exported with
the intention of discarding them, would be deemed to be waste even if labelled as products by the
exporting party and thus constitute illegal shipments. For this provision to apply evidence of the intention
to discard by the exporting party would be required.

Furthermore, the Commission is preparing for the ratification of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants (POPs) signed in May 2001 which currently addresses nine pesticides out 12 pollutants.

The provisions of the Stockholm Convention with regard to stockpiles, wastes containing or contaminated
by POPs stipulate the goal of their environmental sound management. To this end Parties shall, inter alia,
manage stockpiles in a safe, efficient and environmentally sound manner until they are deemed to be
wastes and take measures to handle, collect, transport and store wastes in an environmentally sound
manner disposing of them in a way that destroys the POP content. Parties should not allow recovery,
recycle, reclamation, direct reuse or alternative uses of POPs and not transport POPs across international
boundaries without taking into account international rules (e.g. Basel Convention on transboundary
movements of hazardous wastes).

Although these provisions concern for the time being only the nine pesticides included in the Stockholm
Convention, an environmentally sound management must be applied to all types of obsolete pesticides to
ensure the maximum protection of the environment against the effects of this type of hazardous waste.

In parallel the Commission has recently put forward proposals to ratify and give effect in the Community
to the provisions of the Rotterdam Convention for the application of the Prior Informed Consent (PIC)
Procedure. The objectives of the Convention are to better inform developing countries on chemicals
(pesticides, industrial and consumer chemicals) and to help these countries to manage them properly, in a
sustainable way. The Rotterdam Convention therefore represents another significant step in improving
international regulation and management of hazardous chemicals.

The Commission is not in possession of data allowing the identification of companies having produced
and transported the toxic chemicals referred to by the Honourable Member.

The Commission is however well informed of initiatives undertaken by Greenpeace in Nepal as well as in
other Asian and African countries focussing on unsafe storing conditions of large amounts of expired
pesticides.

Finally, the Commission is also aware of the fact that Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), OECD, aid agencies, countries with obsolete stocks, pesticide
producers and non-governmental organisations have undertaken collaborative projects to inventory, collect
and dispose of existing stocks of obsolete pesticides and to prevent the accumulation of new ones.

(1) OJ L 30, 6.2.1993.

(2004/C 33 E/002)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1285/02

by Glenys Kinnock (PSE) to the Commission

(7 May 2002)

Subject: East Timor

What plans does the Commission have to open a delegation in Dili, East Timor? Has a timetable been set?