COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT The early warning report for Slovakia Accompanying the document REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS on the implementation of EU waste legislation, including the early warning report for Member States at risk of missing the 2020 preparation for re-use/recycling target on municipal waste
Date: 2018-09-24
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission
Subjects: EU environmental policy, Slovakia, application of EU law, circular economy, environmental law, environmental protection, pollution control, prevention of pollution, waste, waste management

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 24.9.2018 SWD(2018) 424 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT The early warning report for Slovakia Accompanying the document REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS on the implementation of EU waste legislation, including the early warning report for Member States at risk of missing the 2020 preparation for re-use/recycling target on municipal waste {COM(2018) 656 final} - {SWD(2018) 413 final} - {SWD(2018) 414 final} - {SWD(2018) 415 final} - {SWD(2018) 416 final} - {SWD(2018) 417 final} - {SWD(2018) 418 final} - {SWD(2018) 419 final} - {SWD(2018) 420 final} - {SWD(2018) 421 final} - {SWD(2018) 422 final} - {SWD(2018) 423 final} - {SWD(2018) 425 final} - {SWD(2018) 426 final}  
 
 
1.  Introduction 

This early warning report is part of the Commission's overall implementation report and aims 
to assist Member States at risk of failing to meet the 2020 target of 50 % preparation for re-
use/recycling of municipal waste set out in Article 11(2)(a) of Directive 2008/98/EC. It builds 
on  previous  support  provided  by  the  Commission  to  help Member  States  comply1  with  EU 
law in the area of municipal waste management. This resulted in country-specific roadmaps2 
being drawn up for the relevant Member States.  

The  assessment  underpinning  the  early  warning  report  is  based  on  a  collaborative  and 
transparent process involving the Member States concerned and an in-depth analysis of their 
most  recent  policy  developments.  This  also  involved  extensive  consultation  with  the 
authorities in charge of waste management.  

The possible actions identified during this process are based on the existing best practices and 
aim  to  help  Member  States  in  meeting  the  2020  municipal  waste  preparation  for  re-
use/recycling; they therefore focus on policy measures that can be taken forward in the short 
term. These actions should be seen as complementary to those recommended in the roadmaps 
that  were  drawn  up  as  part  of  the  preceding  compliance  promotion  activities  and  to  the 
recommendations made in the Environmental Implementation Review3. 

2.  Key findings  

In  2016,  Slovakia’s  municipal  waste  recycling  rate  (including  composting)  reported  to 
Eurostat was 23 %, while its landfilling rate was 65 %. Based on an analysis of existing and 
firmly  planned  policies  in  the  area  of  waste  management,  Slovakia  is  considered  at  risk  of 
missing the 2020 target of 50 % preparation for re-use/recycling of municipal waste. 

The assessment4 that underpins the early warning report concludes that:  

 

the separate collection of recyclables, including bio-waste, is not yet being carried out 
effectively;  

  economic incentives for households to separate waste are lacking;  
 

the extended producer responsibility schemes in Slovakia do not fully cover the costs 
of separate collection; and 

  more investment is needed in projects higher up the waste hierarchy (e.g. recycling) 

that go beyond treatment of residual waste,. 

The  table  below  lists  possible  actions  to  support  Slovakia’s  efforts  to  improve  its 
performance in waste management. 

1 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/framework/support_implementation_1st_phase.htm 
2 Roadmap for Slovakia: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/framework/pdf/SK_Roadmap_FINAL.pdf 
3 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eir/country-reports/index2_en.htm 
4 Eunomia Research & Consulting et al. (2018) ‘Study to identify Member States at risk of non-compliance with 
the 2020 target of the Waste Framework Directive and to follow-up phase 1 and 2 of the compliance 
promotion exercise. The early warning report: Slovakia.’ 

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OVERVIEW OF POSSIBLE ACTIONS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE 

Economic incentives for municipalities 

1)  Development  of  national  minimum  service  standards  for  waste  collection  (including 
bio-waste)  to  specify,  for  example,  the  type  and  volume  of  containers,  minimum  and 
maximum frequency of collection and type of vehicle used, taking into account the type 
of housing stock, typical climate, etc. 

2)  Revision of the Waste Act to stipulate the use of such standards while setting penalties 

for failing to meet these standards to incentivise compliance. 

3)  Cascading down recycling targets to municipal level accompanied by penalties, fiscal or 
otherwise, that are punitive, with adequate time for the municipalities to improve their 
performance. 

4)  Revision of the spending under the operational programme for cohesion policy funds to 
ensure funding is available to support implementation of the service standards (see point 
1). 

5)  Revision  of  the  landfill  tax  to  ensure  other  residual  waste  treatment  and  disposal 
techniques (such as incineration) are also covered, so as to more effectively push waste 
up the hierarchy to the ‘preparation for reuse and recycling’ level, rather than just to the 
‘recovery’ level. 

Extended producer responsibility schemes 

6)  Revision of the roles and responsibilities of the extended producer responsibility (EPR) 
schemes  and  how  they  integrate  with  municipal  services,  to  ensure  that  the  approach 
aligns with the new service standards, and that producers fund the full cost of the parts 
of the system that they are responsible for. 

7)  Introduction of a requirement for packaging producer data to be reviewed by third-party 
auditors  to  ensure  the  accuracy  of  data  on  packaging  placed  on  the  market,  and 
consequently  of  the  recycling  rates  under  the  Packaging  and  Packaging  Waste 
Directive. 

Engagement from municipalities 

8)  Setting up of a national forum on municipal waste recycling to facilitate a good working 
relationship between the national government institutions, municipalities and producer 
responsibility  organisations.  This  should  help  improve  communication  between  the 
national government and the municipalities, and could lead to a shared understanding of 
the problems and solutions. 

Spending of EU funds 

9)  Linking disbursement of EU funds to funding criteria matched to implementation of the 
minimum service standards, while giving municipalities incentives to work together to 
procure waste systems across multiple municipalities, thus improving efficiency. 

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Incentives for households 

10) Research to determine the minimum level of local fees needed to achieve high levels of 
recycling  performance  and  to  subsequently  increase  the  fees  accordingly.  This 
minimum level should be set based on a detailed analysis of the likely minimum cost of 
implementing  the  minimum  service  standards,  from  which  the  contribution  from 
producers under the EPR schemes should be deducted. 

Management of bio-waste 

11) Removal of all exemptions  enshrined in law related to the requirement to sort kitchen 

waste. This is to ensure that the uptake of food waste collection is not limited. 

12) Clarification  within  the  minimum  service  standards  which  types  of  collection  method 
are  suitable  for  bio-waste  (including  specifying  the  need  for  separate  containment  for 
food and  garden waste); and which approaches should be ruled out  due to  likely high 
levels of contamination (e.g. unrestricted access to on-street bins). 

13) Consideration  of  using  the  design-build-operate  contracts  for  procuring  biogas  (or 

other) treatment plants to ensure appropriate facilities are developed. 

14) Support  to  the  roll  out  of  home  composting  by  implementing  economic  support 
measures (e.g. allowing less frequent and cheaper residual waste collections, or simply 
reducing householder waste fees for home composters). 

15) Support to the development of community/on-farm composting in more rural areas with 

support from EU funds. 

16) In order to facilitate the marketing of good quality compost, an  end-of-waste standard 

that gives output of appropriate quality ‘product’ status would be desirable. 

17) Setting  up  a  dedicated  national  support  programme  on  bio-waste  collection  and 
composting  to  help  develop  the  standards  and  markets,  and  to  ensure  economically 
efficient development of bio-waste collection and recycling. 

Technical support to municipalities 

18) Development  of  a  system  at  national  level  that  provides  technical  support  for  local 

councils, specifically in the following areas: 

a.  choosing collection services;  
b.  service procurement; 
c.  service management; 
d.  communication campaigns; 

coupled with active sharing of good ideas and practices that can improve efficiency in 
terms of cost reduction and improvement in performance. 

Improving data quality 

19) Improvements  to  the  national  waste  data  system  following  adoption  of  the  revised 
Waste  Directives,  including  covering  all  municipal  packaging  waste  under  municipal 
waste reporting. 

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