Interview with Pascal Leroy – secretary general, WEEE Forum 

What do you think will be the outcome of the Strasbourg meeting about the new Directive WEEE?

I presume that the Parliament will endorse the agreement reached just before Christmas. I don’t think there is scope for a different outcome.

Do you consider that the new requirements of the Directive are more approached to market reality?

In general yes. 

In Romania, the quantity of WEEE has dramatically dropped in 2011. Do you think the new Directive could help the Romanian Association ROREC to reach its goals?

I think that the new Directive (recast) is an improvement compared with the original in different prospects. However, much depends on transposition now. Quite a few articles start with the sentence “Member states may require…”, which means that they may or may not introduce obligations. We will have to wait and see how this recast Directive is translated into national legal terms.

What lacks?

For example not all actors are covered. Basically only the producers will likely be made responsible and therefore RoRec, which is one of the producer responsibility organizations, will remain responsible for the collection of WEEE, however RoRec or the producer responsibility organizations, do not control the whole WEEE collection market and therefore there will still be actors who collect waste and who will not report it to the authorities and who will not register, so there will still be free riders and there will still be unreported WEEE.

So what can be done?

I think RoRec and CECED Romania should analyze the recast Directive and see what suggestions they can make to the Romanian authorities for the transposition in the Romanian law.

How can the WEEE Forum, together with its associations from Eastern Europe, be involved in the implementation of EU Directive in these countries?

Well, what I intend to do is to draw up a guidance document with suggestions on the issues of greatest concern that my member organizations should focus on when they meet officials in different Member States. It may sound obvious, but one key recommendation is: Watch out very carefully for what you’re made responsible for. Make sure that you are not made responsible for tasks beyond your control.

What can you tell us about the standards (WEEELABEX)?

I think they are fantastic standards. It is the first set of standards that covers all 10 WEEE categories not just CRT appliances or fridges, but all electric and electronic waste that is covered by the Directive.

Secondly, the standards are very specific and they are performance standards in contrast with other standards which are more descriptive and more general. Our standards are specific and detailed, and will affect the WEEE management market. 

Is it possible to implement them in Romania?

Yes, RoRec has said that they are going to implement them. RoRec is by the way one of the ‘early adopters’ or ‘early birds’ meaning that it’s one of the organizations within the WEEE Forum that is committed to implement the standards before all the others do. So they are supposed to already gain experience and learn from doing and share their experiences with all the other member organizations.

Interview published in edition no.1/2012 of Infomediu Europa