Why is the new WFD taking so long?
SOURCE: CIWM, SEPTEMBER 2007
Legislative delay can be frustrating, as proposals gestate into Directives. Especially when – as with the new Waste Framework Directive – they clarify a host of important waste-related issues, and set the course of future investment.
Just before Christmas 2005 the Commission first whetted our appetites with their new draft WFD. Since then, the proposal has bounced its way around the European institutions. First, to the European Parliament (EP) and the European Council (so that our MEPs and government ministers could digest it). The Council discussed it in March 2006, and we got the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee in July 2006.
We then had the Parliament’s first reading (and extensive amendments) in February 2007, followed by general agreement by Ministers at the Environment Council in June.
So, are we there yet?
Unfortunately not. The next milestone should be the Council formally adopting a “common position” in September, triggering frenzied EP activity as it is first debated in committee (19-23 November), given a 2nd reading in committee (17-21 December), and an expected plenary 2nd reading on 15 January 2008.
So it will be a few months into 2008 before the text is finalised, with a further 1-2 years before it needs transposed into law within the UK. Let’s hope it is worth the wait. Meanwhile, we make the best of the law we have.
AUTHOR: VINCENT BROWN
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