Legislation on mining waste management in central and eastern european candidate countries [antikvár]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Key Findings Mining in Community law • The Treaties of the European Community declare the promotion of a policy of using natural resources prudently and rationally to avoid their unconsidered exhaustion. Mineral resources are important non-renewable natural resources in both Member States and Candidate Countries. The exhaustion of mineral resources, the security of o continuous supply of raw material, the environmental impact of this voluminous waste stream and the enlargement of the European Union are issues requiring the establishment of a common mining waste management regulation and a more explicit minerals policy. • The mining industry has a particular status in the acquis communautaire. Issues like worker health and safety, the supply of strategic minerals and development of the industry are covered by dozens of directives, regulations and communications. After the decades of primacy of coal and metals the hydrocarbon extractive industry received a privileged status. The Directive on the conditions for granting of hydrocarbons and the Directive on coordinating the procurement procedures include elements of a mineral policy. The daughter Waste Directives, the Water Framework Directive and the proposed amendment of the Seveso II Directive grant a waiver for the hydrocarbon industry. • Mineral extracting activities are excluded from the scope of major environmental Directives (Waste Framework, Seveso II, ICCP] or have received a certain freedom of interpretation (EIA, Landfill Directive). Mining-related, sometimes inconsistent provisions are found in the Waste Framework Directive and its daughter Directives (Waste Shipment, Landfill, European Waste Catalogue], and in other thematic directives (Water Framework). This is reflected in the increasing number of related cases submitted to the European Court of Justice. • The terminology in use for mining and mining waste is heterogeneous. There is a major difference if mineral processing is included (Council Decision on Mines Safety, Seveso II Directive vs. Waste Directives). Based on the traditional use of the term "mining" and considering the environmental risks, the on-site physical, chemical and biological processing of extracted minerals shall be defined as an integral port of the mining production chain. Two recent Commission Communications declare that mining is increasingly influenced by other competing land uses, such as urban development, agriculture and nature conservation. The balanced consideration of economic, environmental and social aspects to ensure the sustainable development of this industry is needed, and a coherent Community policy is necessary. The follow-up actions are the amendment of the Seveso II Directive, the drawing up of a Reference Document on Best Available Techniques and the preparation of a Mining Waste Directive, which shall provide a framework for dealing with the discrepancies. National regulations on mining in Candidate Countries Regulatory framework • In Central and Eastern European Candidate Countries democratic legislative, judicial and executive powers are well distributed among the different state bodies. There are typically three or four levels of legislation (Parliament,Government, Ministers and Local Governments) which all issue regulations relevant to the mining industry. The judicial system has at least two levels. The first level of appeal is ensured within the public administration. • The key authorities in the mining field are the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of the Environment with a trend towards the latter having increasing responsibility. There are a variety of sub-ordinate licensing authorities such as environmental, mining, geological and water authorities and local governments. National Geological Surveys are usually the state agencies which manage information with regard to mineral resources, mining locations and mining waste inventory. Mining legislation • All Candidate Countries have a recent act on mining (or on subsoil use, or on subsurface resources]. In most countries the mining acts (used here as a collective term] apply to exploration, establishment of mining acreage, exploitation, break in operation, mineral processing, réclama-