EU Waste Law

The European Commission has recently responded to review clauses in the Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, which require it to review existing waste management targets. The European Commission propose the Council and the European Parliament, as co-legislators, to revise these Directives, as well as the ELV Directive, the Directive on batteries and accumulators and the WEEE Directive. According to the impact assessment that was conducted by the European Commission as required for any legislative proposal, the proposal's main general objective is to ensure that valuable material embedded in waste is effectively re-used, recycled and re-injected into the European economy. This reinforces the goal for developing a circular economy, where waste is progressively used as a resource, and new economic opportunities and jobs are created by simplifying the EU waste legislation. Thus, at the same time, improving monitoring, ensuring optimal waste management in all the Member States, and establishing mid-term waste targets in line with the EU ambitions regarding resource efficiency and access to raw materials.

When faced with litigation somehow involving waste, the courts of a Member State will not normally enforce the EU law as such, but the national law which has transposed the corresponding EU legislation. In most cases, irrespective of the type of litigation considered, be it administrative, criminal, or civil and commercial, a primary issue is that of deciding whether the considered substance or object should be characterised as waste. Litigation in national courts may directly relate to EU legislation properly said, i.e. where one of the provisions of the waste directives or regulations mentioned above is in itself formally relied upon by the parties as the basis for the lawsuit or as a decisive legal argument. In addition, there are many cases where waste legislation comes up within a legal dispute not as a claim’s very legal basis or as a main, self-standing, legal argument, but in the context of the application of some other EU environmental law instruments.