European Parliament resolution on the export of toxic waste to Africa
Date: 2006-10-26
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: Africa, chemical waste, export of waste, hazardous waste, pollution control measures, waste disposal

C 313 E/432

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Thursday 26 October 2006

12.
Calls on the Russian authorities to rescind all the measures recently taken against Georgia and against
the Georgian population on its territory; calls, further, on the Russian authorities to lift their unjustified
import ban on products from Moldova and Georgia;

Calls on Russia to accept the realities which emerged after the end of the Cold War and to abandon

13.
outdated thinking about exclusive zones of influence;

14.
Calls on the Council to keep on making every effort to defuse the tension and rebuild confidence
between Georgia and the Russian Federation and prevent the present diplomatic crisis from escalating
further; urges the Council and the Commission to find ways to help Georgia overcome and counterbalance
the economic and social repercussions of the measures taken in Moscow;

Calls on the Council and the Commission to include the question of frozen conflicts and their

15.
resolution on the agenda for the next EU-Russia summits;

16. Welcomes the conclusion and the signing of the European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan for
Georgia; expects that the implementation thereof will give a further boost to the political and reform
process in that country; welcomes the statements by the High Representative for the CFSP, Javier Solana,
who recently said that the EU intends to become more actively engaged in the resolution of conflicts in
Georgia, and calls on the Council to provide the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus with all
the necessary means and resources to make this action more effective and visible;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission,, the President and
17.
Parliament of Georgia, the President and Parliament of the Russian Federation and the de facto authorities in
South Ossetia and the Secretaries-General of the United Nations and the OSCE.

P6_TA(2006)0457

Export of toxic waste to Africa

European Parliament resolution on the export of toxic waste to Africa

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes
and their Disposal (the Basel Convention), adopted on 22 March 1989 and approved on behalf of the
Community by Council Decision 93/98/EEC, (1) and the ban pursuant thereto on all exports of hazar-
dous waste from the OECD to non-OECD countries,

— having regard to Community legislation on shipment of waste, in particular Council Regulation (EEC)
No 259/93 of 1 February 1993 on the supervision and control of shipments of waste within, into and
out of the European Community, (2) and Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 of the European Parliament
the Council of 14 June 2006 on shipments of waste, (3) which repeals Regulation (EEC)
and of
No 259/93 as of 12 July 2007,

— having regard to Rule 103(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas around 500 tonnes of chemical waste have been dumped in several areas in the neighbour-

hood of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, where 5 million people live,

B. whereas eight people have died so far and some 85 000 have been taken to hospital for treatment for
nosebleeds, diarrhoea, nausea, eye irritation and breathing difficulties; whereas the consequences of this
dumping of toxic waste may be far-reaching, including soil contamination and surface and groundwater
pollution,

(1) OJ L 39, 16.2.1993, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 30, 6.2.1993, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 190, 12.7.2006, p. 1.

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C. whereas this poisoning has affected in a particularly severe way a great number of children: as estimated
by Unicef, between 9 000 and 23 000 children will need medical assistance and health care and other
measures to clean up the environment where they live will be required,

Thursday 26 October 2006

D. whereas the toxic waste was dumped by a Greek-owned, Panamanian-flagged tanker leased by Trafigura
Beheer B.V., a Netherlands-based company; whereas such sharing of responsibilities creates a systematic
and unacceptable problem with regard to the enforcement of Community legislation,

E. whereas environmental regulations in the Northern countries have made it expensive to dispose of

hazardous waste,

F. whereas the Amsterdam port authorities found out about the hazardous nature of the waste upon
unloading, and asked for a higher fee to complete the unloading, following which the tanker chose
instead to pump the waste back on board; whereas the Netherlands authorities allowed the ship to
leave their territory despite knowing about the hazardous nature of the waste and about the captain's
unwillingness to pay for environmentally sound disposal in the Netherlands,

G. whereas the company had the opportunity to dispose of the waste in a legal and safe manner in

Europe, but chose a cheaper alternative in Côte d'Ivoire,

H. whereas Africa is a dumping ground for all kinds of hazardous waste; whereas Greenpeace has identi-
fied 80 sites where hazardous waste from developed countries has been dumped, including old com-
puters in Nigeria, radioactive tanks in Somalia, dumping of chlorine in Cameroon, etc.,

I. whereas most African countries do not have strong regulations to protect the environment and the

livelihood of their populations against hazardous waste,

J. whereas all exports from the EU of waste for disposal have been prohibited since May 1994, pursuant
to Regulation (EEC) No 259/93; whereas the export of hazardous waste from the EU to non-OECD
countries for recovery has been prohibited since January 1997, pursuant to that Regulation,

K. whereas the dumping of hazardous waste in Côte d'Ivoire is just the tip of the iceberg of ongoing
shipments of hazardous waste from the EU to non-OECD countries; whereas very large amounts of
waste electrical and electronic equipment are being dumped in non-OECD countries under the pretext
of ‘reuse’; whereas a significant number of old EU ships laden with toxic substances and materials are
being scrapped in Asia under conditions that are extremely harmful to workers and the environment,

L. whereas it adopted at first reading on 9 April 2002 a position on the proposal for a directive on the
protection of the environment through criminal law (1); whereas the Council never adopted a political
agreement on this proposal and favoured, instead, a third pillar framework decision on the same subject
(Council Framework Decision 2003/80/JHA of 27 January 2003 (2)); whereas the Court of Justice of the
European Communities annulled the framework decision in its judgment of 13 September 2005 in
Case C-176/03,

Calls on the Commission, the Netherlands and Côte d'Ivoire to investigate this case fully, to establish
1.
responsibility at all levels, to bring to justice those responsible for this environmental crime and to ensure
full remediation of the environmental contamination, as well as compensation for the victims;

Calls on the EU institutions and the Member States to take all necessary measures to provide full
2.
assistance to the population affected and in particular to children, by using all available means of support,
cooperation and civil protection;

(1) OJ C 127 E, 29.5.2003, p. 119.
(2) OJ L 29, 5.2.2003, p. 55.

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3.
Considers that both Community legislation and international conventions were clearly violated in the
case of the exporting of hazardous waste to Abidjan, and therefore calls on the Commission and the
Member States to take all necessary measures to ensure full enforcement of the existing waste shipment
legislation;

Asks the Commission and the Member States concerned to make public all the bilateral agreements

4.
they have concluded with non-OECD countries for the shipping of waste;

Calls on the Commission to make legislative proposals to close the loopholes in the current regime on
5.
hazardous waste so as to end shipments to non-OECD countries of waste electrical and electronic equip-
ment and obsolete ships and vessels;

6.
Calls on the Commission to collect information on the illicit trafficking in, and dumping of, such
hazardous wastes and products in African and other developing countries, to come forward with proposals
for measures to control, reduce and eradicate this illicit trafficking, transfer and dumping of such products
in African and other developing countries and to produce annually a list of countries and transnational
corporations engaged in the illicit dumping of toxic waste and products in African and other developing
countries;

7.
Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission, the governments
of the Member States, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the government of Côte d'Ivoire and the
secretariat of the Basel Convention.

P6_TA(2006)0458

Use of criminal law to protect the environment

European Parliament resolution on the follow-up to Parliament's opinion on environmental protec-
tion: combating crime, criminal offences and penalties

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the

protection of the environment through criminal law (1),

— having regard to its position of 9 April 2002 with a view to the adoption of a directive of the Euro-
pean Parliament and of the Council on the protection of the environment through criminal law (2),

— having regard to its position of 9 April 2002 on the proposal for a Council decision establishing a
framework programme on the basis of Title VI of the Treaty on European Union — Police and judicial
cooperation in criminal matters (3),

— having regard to the judgment of the Court of Justice of 13 September 2005 in Case C-176/03,

Commission v Council (4),

— having regard to the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council
on the implications of the Court's judgment of 13 September 2005 (Case C-176/03, Commission
v Council) (COM(2005)0583),

— having regard to its resolution of 14 June 2006 on the consequences of the judgment of the Court of

13 September 2005 (C-176/03, Commission v. Council) (5),

— having regard to Rule 108(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

(1) OJ C 180 E, 26.6.2001, p. 238.
(2) OJ C 127 E, 29.5.2003, p. 119.
(3) OJ C 127 E, 29.5.2003, p. 132.
(4)
(5) Texts Adopted of 14.6.2006, P6_TA(2006)0260.

[2005] ECR I-7879.