The EU member states are unlikely to reach agreement on a common approach to the revision of the EU Waste Shipments Regulation (WSR) before the end of the year. "We are nowhere near that far,” said Michael Ernst from the German environment ministry during an online event last week organised by the waste management associations BDE (Germany) and VOEB (Austria).
In the first half of the year, reported Mr Ernst, there had been only a "general review" at the working group level of the Commission's proposal, which was presented last November. The French government, which then held the rotating Council presidency, published a progress report on the results of the consultations in June. In their detailed evaluation of the Commission proposal, the representatives of the member states have only reached Title II, which regulates transfrontier shipments within the EU, Mr Ernst told event attendees. Other legislative projects, such as the EU Batteries Regulation, had been considered more urgent, he explained. Czech Republic, which currently holds the Council presidency, would present a progress report in December and then work on the WSR would continue in 2023 under the Swedish presidency, he added....
