[GRRN] Car Recycling - Germany/EU - fyi
RecycleWorlds (anderson@msn.fullfeed.com)
Mon, 28 Jun 1999 10:18:19 -0500
"VDA backs Schroeder EU scrap car law review call"l
GERMANY: June 28, 1999
FRANKFURT - The VDA German car manufacturers'
association backed calls by Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder for a review of planned European Union
legislation to make car producers bare the cost of
recycling old cars.
Germany, Spain and Britain on Thursday blocked the
contentious draft European law following intense lobbying
from the European car industry, EU officials said.
The planned EU measure would force car makers to cover
the cost of taking back scrap cars from 2003 and require
them to recycle or reuse 80 percent of a car's weight from
2005, rising to 85 percent in 2015.
The VDA said it was in favour of a compromise deal which
did not require car makers to carry the cost of recycling
cars sold before the new EU legislation came into force.
The association said it would support a law requiring car
makers to recycle scrap cars sold after the law was in
place, relieving them of the burden of recycling millions of
cars already on Europe's roads.
"The German car industry is steadfastly sticking to its
promise to take back all newly registered cars (when they
reach the end of their life-cycle) free of charge from the time
the used-car guidelines are in place," VDA President Bernd
Gottschalk said in a statement.
Carmakers say the EU's current plan would cost an average
of 370 marks for each of the 150 million cars on the EU's
roads. They said it is unfair to expect them to cover th
costs of recycling cars designed before the rules come into
force.
Germany's Social Democrat Chancellor Schroeder said the
EU recycling law in its current form would cost German car
makers - who between them would have to take in 40
percent of 160 million cars on the road in Europe - between
15 and 30 billion marks.
"The legislation needs to be thought out again," Schroeder
said on Wednesday.
EU officials said a possible compromise could involve
starting the free take-back of cars already on the road later
than 2003, while requiring car makers to cover disposal
costs of new cars slightly earlier than 2003.
It will now be up to the next EU president Finland, an
enthusiastic supporter of the proposals, to find a
compromise.
Environment ministers next meet in October, though
Finland has said it would consider dealing with the proposal
before then.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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Peter Anderson
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