Waste statistics

The committee adopted the report by Hans BLOKLAND (EDD, NL) amending the Council's common position under the second reading of the codecision procedure. It reinstated a number of amendments adopted by Parliament at first reading and tabled a number of other amendments aimed at achieving a compromise between Parliament's first reading position and the Council's common position. The committee restated Parliament's view that waste statistics should be compiled for agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing, which had been excluded from the proposal. This would render the proposed pilot studies (to assess the relevance and feasibility of obtaining data in those areas) unnecessary, and the relevant article in the proposal should therefore be deleted. The committee also felt that there was no need for an extra transitional period for individual Member States in the sectors which the proposal had originally covered, but that this should be an option for the above-mentioned new sectors. On the question of statistics on the import and export of waste, the committee proposed a compromise under which voluntary and time-consuming pilot studies would be replaced by pilot surveys in each Member State. The amendments stipulated that these surveys should be conducted within two years of the regulation's entry into force and should result in a methodology for obtaining data on the import and export of waste. The committee reiterated Parliament's call for separate categories to be created for animal waste and for dredging spoils, given the considerable volume involved. Lastly, it reinstated the first reading amendments calling for statistical data on recovery and recycling to be provided annually rather than every two years as proposed by the Council.�