Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulation (Regulation No. 1013/2006)
Date of Adoption: 14 June 2006 Entry into force: 15 July 2006 (OJ L 190, 12.7.2006) Date of Application: 12 July 2007
What are the aims and requirements of the Regulation?
This Regulation, which updated and replaced Regulation No. 259/93, regulates the supervision and control of shipments of waste, within and into or out of the European Union, and implements the Basel Convention (1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal).
The 2006 Regulation was intended to 'reinforce, simplify and specify the existing procedures for controlling waste shipments'. The Regulation also incorporates into Community legislation amendments made to the annexes to the Basel Convention.
Definitions and scope of the Regulation
The Regulation uses the same definition of 'waste' that is provided in the Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2006/12/EC), so its provisions apply to shipments of 'any substance or object in the categories set out in Annex I which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard'. The 2006 Waste Framework Directive is due to be replaced by the Revised Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC) in December 2010, but this definition of 'waste' has not been substantially amended (see Waste Framework Directive page)
Prior to 2009, only radioactive waste, maritime wastes and certain other narrowly defined categories were excluded from the scope of the Regulation, under Article 1(3), as they were subject to other, dedicated regimes or rules. This Article has been amended by the 2009 CCS Directive.
Article 1.2 provides that the Regulation applies to shipments of wastes:
between Member States, within the Community or with transit through third countries;
imported into the Community from third countries;
exported from the Community to third countries;
in transit through the Community, on the way from and to third countries.
The Regulation imposes a system of 'prior notification and consent' for the shipment of waste between Member States for disposal and for certain recovery operations (Title II). Notification from the original holder of the waste must be sent to the relevant authority in the destination Member State and a contract must be concluded with the consignee for the disposal of the waste. A shipment may not be made by the notifying party until an authorisation has been granted by the competent authority of the destination Member State. A Member State may object to the proposed shipments under Articles 11 (waste for disposal) and 12 (waste for recovery). For shipments of waste which are exclusively within a Member State's jurisdiction, 'an appropriate system for the supervision and control' of waste has to be established (Title III).
Title IV of the Regulation concerns exports of waste from EU Member States to third countries. A prohibition is placed upon all exports of waste for disposal to non-EFTA countries and EFTA countries
that are not party to the Basel Convention. A similar prohibition forbids the export of waste for recovery to non-OECD countries, third party countries or those with bilateral agreements with the Community. Imports into the Community of waste for disposal from third countries are prohibited unless the exporting country is party to the Basel Convention or has an agreement with the Community. In all instances where shipment is permitted, the notification and authorisation requirements must be followed.
Key legal issues concerning CCS
Article 36 of the Directive on the geological storage of carbon dioxide (2009/31/EC) (the CCS Directive), adopted in April 2009, amends Article 1(3) of the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulation to categorically exclude from the scope of the Regulation "shipments of CO2 for the purposes of geological storage in accordance with" the CCS Directive. This means that, insofar as the shipment of CO2 occurs in compliance with the provisions of the Directive, the Regulation will not apply to transboundary transport of CO2 and, therefore, does not represent a potential obstacle or barrier to CCS activities.