In a joint paper, several EU member states are calling for improved information sharing to strengthen the enforcement of the EU Waste Shipments Regulation (WSR). During the prior notification and consent process, for example, competent authorities should be able to find out which companies have already been sanctioned for illegal shipments in other EU countries, they say. A member state that intercepts an illegal trans-border waste shipment should be automatically informed about the outcome of the investigation and any criminal proceedings in the member state responsible for handling the case, according to a joint statement by Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia.
As Czech environment minister Petr Hladík said in the Council meetings on Thursday, in some member states there are currently as many as 100 different institutions responsible for such cases. "Without a national authority, we cannot guarantee the speed, effectiveness and efficiency of enforcement or of combatting this illegal activity," Mr Hladík said. The joint paper recommends that a single authority in each member state be responsible for such cases.
The Czech minister's proposals come against the backdrop of several high-profile cases of illegal waste shipments to his home country. Minister Hladík has been personally involved in efforts to secure the repatriation of a series of alleged illegal waste imports from Germany, where the competence for transboundary waste movements rests with the states and sometimes even with regional administrative districts....
