Considerations on COM(1999)31 - Waste management statistics

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dossier COM(1999)31 - Waste management statistics.
document COM(1999)31 EN
date November 25, 2002
 
(1) Regular Community statistics on the production and management of waste from businesses and private households are required by the Community for monitoring the implementation of waste policy. This creates the basis for monitoring compliance with the principles of maximisation of recovery and safe disposal. Statistical instruments are still required, however, for assessing compliance with the principle of waste prevention and to establish a link between waste generation data and global, national and regional inventories of resource use.

(2) The terms for the description of waste and waste management need to be defined in order to ensure the comparability of results in waste statistics.

(3) Community waste policy has led to the establishment of a set of principles to be followed by waste-producing units and waste management. This requires the monitoring of waste at different points of the waste-stream generation, collection, recovery and disposal.

(4) Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community statistics(4).

(5) To guarantee comparable results, waste statistics should be produced in accordance with the specified breakdown, in an appropriate form and within a fixed period of time from the end of the reference year.

(6) Since the objective of the proposed measure, namely to establish a framework for the production of Community statistics on the generation, recovery and disposal of waste, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, by reason of the need to define terms of description of waste and waste management so as to ensure the comparability of the statistics supplied by the Member States, and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve the objective of the proposed measure.

(7) Member States may need a transitional period for the establishment of their statistics on waste for all or some of the economic activities A, B and G to Q of NACE REV 1 as established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 of 9 October 1990 on the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community(5) for which their national statistical system requires major adaptations.

(8) The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission(6).

(9) The Statistical Programme Committee has been consulted by the Commission.