Eight supreme audit institutions report on enforcement of EU Regulation on international waste shipments
National Courts of Audit of eight European countries publish a joint report on audits of the enforcement of the EU Waste Shipment Regulation (EWSR) carried out by the eight audit institutions. Arno Visser, Vice-President of the Board of the Netherlands Court of Audit, presented this joint report at an international meeting of supreme audit institutions in Vilnius (Lithuania).
The audit institutions of Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands audited the Regulation's enforcement in their home countries between 2011 and 2013. The aim of this coordinated audit was to increase insight into the practice in Europe. The joint report and the national reports are expected to be debated by the national parliaments, and the European Parliament, the European Commission and the World Customs Organisation have shown an interest in the conclusions and recommendations.
The Court of Audit's report on the situation in the Netherlands was published on 4 October 2012 under the title Enforcement of the European Waste Shipment Regulation.
The English-language joint report, Coordinated audit on the enforcement of the European Waste Shipment Regulation, concludes that the EU Regulation has been implemented in all eight countries but there are considerable differences in its enforcement from one country to another. Differences can be seen in the enforcement strategies applied by the supervisory authorities (six of the eight countries do not use risk analysis) and the number of inspectors involved and the number of inspections carried out of international waste shipments (between a dozen and several thousands a year). The response to infringements of European rules also differs (sanctions vary from one country to another). The eight audits found that the authorities had only a limited insight into the effects of their inspections and had little if any insight into the reliability of the information they received on waste processing abroad.
The differences in compliance with the rules among the countries involved, EU member states and Norway, are inconsistent with the basic principle of creating a level playing field for waste export enforcement in the EU.
The cooperating audit institutions make a number of recommendations in the joint report to improve enforcement.