On Friday, the European Commission adopted reports concerning the implementation and enforcement of waste legislation in the EU. The implementation reports, covering the period 2004-2006, concern 7 directives: the Waste Framework Directive, the Hazardous Waste Directive, the Landfill Directive, the Packaging Directive, the Sewage Sludge Directive, the Waste Oils Directive and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive.

Malta’s only clean sheet is on the Sewage Sludge Directive, where the country receives no mention and which states that all member states provided the Commission with details on its implementation.

However, on the other directives, most references to Malta only state that the country has failed to submit the appropriate reports, or has not met its data provision obligations.

Only Malta and Portugal failed to submit reports on the Waste Framework Directive, thus providing no information on their implementation of the directive at hand.

Malta did submit information concerning the Hazardous Waste Directive; however, the country stands out as the only one not to have a waste management plan in place. Although the Commission was told that a draft waste management plan for 2006-2010 was drawn up in 2006-07, it is still pending approval, adoption and publication by the Maltese authorities before submission to the Commission, the report states.

Malta also failed to provide an answer on a hazardous waste management plan.

On the Packaging Directive, the report states that only Malta failed to meet data provision obligations, providing no data for 2004 and 2005. Together with Cyprus, Malta also missed its overall recycling target which it was required to meet by 2005. Cyprus, Greece and Lithuania missed their overall recovery targets, while Greece missed its plastic recycling targets.

The report also notes that on the Packaging Directive, Malta and Sweden did not submit written qualitative reports, only the data required by the directive.

Just 2 countries failed to submit timely reports on the 2 remaining directives, and only Malta failed to submit reports on both. In addition, Cyprus failed to issue a report on the Waste Oil Directive while the Netherlands did not submit reports on the WEEE Directive.

The Commission noted that the reports highlighted the need for significant efforts by member states to ensure that waste management is up to EU standards.

“Proper implementation of waste legislation is vital for the protection of our environment and health. Having legislation in place is not enough: the rules have to work in practice. Unfortunately, insufficient importance is attached to the enforcement of waste laws, and the Commission receives regular complaints from citizens and the European Parliament regarding the bad management of waste,” Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas commented.

“Member states must take the implementation of waste legislation seriously. We need to manage our waste properly so that we preserve our resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect the health of citizens. The Commission will step up its efforts to assist member states in better implementation.”

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