The case against Germany stems from the country’s practice of “unduly restricting the shipment of waste to other member states where the waste is to be recovered in cement kilns,” according to the EC. Germany argues that restricts shipment to other member states in cases where it believes the waste will not be recovered but merely disposed of.

Italy is being pursued over its failure to implement hazardous waste legislation. The EC asserts that “some undertakings recovering hazardous waste are exempted from the prior authorisation requirement, even though no appropriate technical conditions have yet been set out by Italy.”

The EC’s case against the UK is more complicated. The court action relates to the UK’s alleged failure to develop waste management plans thus leading to infractions of the Waste Directive, the Hazardous Waste Directive, and the Packaging Waste Directive. “The plans sent to the Commission by the UK fell short of the requirements arising from EU waste legislation: the UK territory was not completely covered, some of the plans were no longer valid and only one contains a chapter relating to the management of packaging and packaging waste,” says the EC. Although the UK has told the EC that national waste strategies are being prepared (see related story), court action is going forward because no actual plans have been adopted.

The warning to Spain relates to a failure by the Canary Islands to communicate adequately its implementation of the Packaging Waste Directive.

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