PROJECTS

Executive Summary

Introduction

Precursor projects, such as the IMPEL-TFS Verification project, the Seaport project and the IMPEL-TFS European Waste Enforcement Actions I project have shown the need for cross-border collaboration at an operational level in order to effectively implement and enforce the new Waste Shipment Regulation 1013/2006 and prevent illegal waste transports.  This “IMPEL-TFS Enforcement Action II Project” covers the period of October 2008 to March 2011.

Interim results

Inspections have been performed by 22 countries in three phases between October 2008 and April 2009.A total number of 10,481 transports were inspected, this comprises the inspection of containers, trucks, trains and documents.

• Of these overall inspections reported, in 7,886 cases (roughly 75%) also physical inspections of cars, trains, containers or storage locations have taken place.
• Out of these physical inspections, 1,935 transports, i.e. roughly 25%, concerned transfrontier shipments of waste.
• All in all, 367 of the shipments, this means 19%, turned out to be in violation of the WSR requirements, of which 46% were administrative violations, 37%  were illegal transports and 17 % other violations.

It must be noticed that these figures are based on ad random and target-oriented inspections and therefore do not reflect the overall compliance level in Europe.

In addition to these results, reported ad hoc inspections increase the total amount of inspections to over 11,500 transport inspections and several hundred company inspections. During these activities over 100 additional illegal shipments have been detected and investigations have been started.

Conclusions

Results show that within the Enforcement Action II project major success has been made in terms of active participation of MS, number of inspections, exchange programs, joint activities and participation of customs and police officers. There are indications that enforcement of the EU waste shipment regulation is gaining in importance and priority. The activities of the past months however, also clearly showed that it would be highly beneficial to get on board all MS in order to prevent and eliminate illegal “escape routes” (e.g. by port-hopping) from the Community.

Recommendations

Priority for enforcement of the EU WSR at the high level in the MS should be further increased, efforts to further enhance participation of cooperating enforcement bodies (customs, police) should be continued and further emphasis should be put on continuous training on waste shipment inspection at European level.