The Hungarian Parliament vote on a controversial waste management bill originally scheduled for 10 September is now expected to take place some time next week, a spokeswoman for Hungary's Ministry of Rural Development told EUWID.
The bill put forward by Viktor Orbán's national conservative government would effectively eliminate all companies which are not majority-owned by the public sector from the Hungarian waste management market.
Speaking last Monday at the International Recycling and Recovery Conference in Berlin, Zoltán Illés, who serves as Minister of State for Environmental Affairs within the Ministry of Rural Development, defended the draft law. The existing system had failed to achieve the objectives established for waste management, he said. Mr Illés saw no conflict with EU law arising from the proposed legislation.
However, the European Commission launched an "EU Pilot" procedure related to the proposed law in the middle of July. EU Pilot provides an expedited method for addressing problems with regard to the factual or legal position of a member state. The procedure is intended to address issues at an early stage, thereby avoiding official infringement proceedings if possible.