EGARA was invited by the Nordic meeting’s organising committee some time ago and decided this was an important meeting and have a presentation. Artemis Hatzi-Hull (EC) was invited also. Both the Nordic organisations as well as EGARA were happy to find out she accepted and joined the 2 days programme on May 8th and 9th.
The programme involved a welcome at the Clarion conference center at Arlanda. Here all were welcomed by the organising committee and the programmes were explained. Later that day we visited Albildelar car dismantling and shredder Stena Recycling. Albildelar had just made big investments in their site and kept it spot on clean. Their stock was impressive. At Stena we had a very interesting tour. We got to see and get explained all processes. The day was closed with a barbecue at which we spoke many people.
Next morning we walked to the Theater Ship at which we had a line up of presentations from many stakeholders like the Swedish Ministry, The Norwegian resarch institute, Stena, Chalmers research institute, the Swedish producers organisation, Artemis and EGARA. The afternoon was reserved for the association’s closed general meetings. In the evening we had dinner at the Theater Ship.
The whole setup of this Nordic meting seemed to work out really fine. What was good for EGARA, was that we could actually speak to the associations’ members themselves personally, as well as have a speech. We could explain what EGARA really does and we could learn from members what their concerns and opinions are. We also had the opportunity to take Artemis directly to people that had issues with all kinds of things. She spoke to stakeholders, but also to members and hear about their specific national topics. Personally I think Artemis went home with tons of usable info and impressions (I did for sure).
It was good to be at this meeting for so many reasons, it was good to have Artemis around and the organisation deserves a big compliment for this 2 days meeting!
At May 13th, a parliamentary breakfast meeting at 08:00 was organised by Beate Kummer from Scholz in Brussels. Among many stakeholders, also present were Members of Parliament (MEP) Karl- Heinz Florenz and Reinhard Bütikofer and Chris Davies (former mep, but still active in the environmental lobby). Artemis Hatzi-Hull (EC policy advisor ELV’s) was also present.
Florenz made some rather strong statements: ‘SME’s have my interest, loopholes in ELV Directive, Missing vehicles: EC should do a better job’. ) Bütikofer (Greens) stated that we all should coöperate. Chris Davies made 3 points:
1. Best practises;
2. EPR (producer responsibility): not only an OEM responsibility, but also other players in the chain (dismantlers, insurance, authorities);
3. circular economy.
Artemis replied to all 3:
- Portugal came from nowhere and set up good legislation and good enforcement
- ALL economic operators should put pressure on their governments
- A stakeholder consultancy will be held about circular economy.
Artemis had a short speech about the main topics for her unit at the moment:
- – The reporting methodology ( focus on reliable numbers and 1 common methodology);
- – The fitness check (Directive is good, implementations is the problem);
- – The registration systems and non coöperation of the MS;
- – Pilots and infringement procedures;
- – Waste shipment correspondence guideline (waste status parts)Personally, I’m of opinion that Artemis as a policy advisor, is one of the best informed, pro-active persons at the EC and dares to start pilots and infringements. We benefit from this because we are as industry fulfilling all obligations from the Directive. It’s only fair that our playingfield is taken good care of.
Beate Kummer gave a presentation and stressed again the difference between car and ELV. Too many ELV’s are leaving the country as car, which they are not.The Austrian government seems to accept the Scholz definition: A Vehicle is an ELV if it’s not repearable for reasonable costs in the land where it becomes an ELV, even if the land of planned import had cheaper labour. For me this was a familiar one as in The Netherlands we use it for many years. They plea to have a better suitable ELV definition in the Directive.
Tobias Bahr (ACEA) made some remarks about missing vehicles and illegal exports. ACEA and EGARA agree on these points. Possibly we should try to make a lobby at DG Move.
Meetings like this breakfast meeting are a good opportunity to meet the people we need to deal with. It’s a very efficient way to do some networking. We will visit more of these smaller but important come-togethers.
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