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Commission expands on WEEE law review options Posted: 16 Apr 2008 04:53 PM CDT The scope of EU legislation on end-of-life electronic and electrical equipment (EEE) could be expanded to cover all types of electrical goods, according to a European commission consultation document published on Friday as part of an ongoing review of the rules. The commission says draft revised legislation could appear in the autumn. The EU's WEEE directive currently applies to ten product categories, including large and small household appliances and consumer equipment. It excludes products rated at over 1,000 volts AC or 1,500V DC. According to the commission, one option under consideration is to "maximise the scope to all EEE (also above 1,000 volt AC or 1,500 volt DC) and to spare parts and components". The review could also introduce changes to an existing annual waste collection target of four kilograms per capita (EED 17/02/03). This target does not reflect the wide variation in EEE sales between member states and does not encourage governments to strive for optimum collection rates, the commission says. Options under consideration include differentiated weight-based targets for each member state, or variable collection targets expressed as a percentage of products placed on the market. Current mandatory targets for recovering and recycling collected WEEE could also be increased, says the commission. This could involve simply increasing current targets for different product categories, or could introduce new material-based targets for WEEE-derived waste streams such as plastics or minerals. Another possible change could be the introduction of a dual legal base for the legislation. The current rules are based on the EU treaty's "environmental protection" article 175, which allows member states to enact stricter national laws if they choose. The commission says there is evidence that this has led to "non-optimal" implementation of the directive and floats the possibility of shifting the legal base to article 95 for provisions relating to the scope of the legislation, definitions and product requirements. This would harmonise rules across EU states. Stakeholders have until 5 June to submit their responses to the consultation. The commission says it expects to publish the findings of the review this autumn, alongside possible proposals to amend the WEEE directive. [b]Follow-up[/b]: [url=http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm]European commission[/url] | [url=http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/env/weee_2008_review/library?l=/stakeholder_consultation/stakeholder_consultation/_EN_1.0_&a=d]consultation document[/url] and [url=http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/events_weee_en.htm]Weee webpages[/url].

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