Joint letter on outdated EU Extractive Waste Directive
ECOS co-signed a letter to EU Commissioner Roswall highlighting the need to review the outdated EU Extractive Waste Directive, and to bring it in line with global best practice.
As the EU plans to open new mines to meet the 10% mining benchmark under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, we must ensure our environmental standards are aligned with best practices.
Legal analysis of the 2006 Extractive Waste Directive, commissioned by Transport & Environment (T&E), found it to be below global best practice, with a significant risk of fragmentation in the implementation of the directive, a failure to mandate best available techniques (such as safer filtered tailings), and insufficient protection of the environment and local communities.
Alongside other signatories of this letter, we call on the European Commission to update the Extractive Waste Directive by:
- Turning the directive into a new European Extractive Waste Regulation
- Mandating the best available techniques, including the safest tailings storage and monitoring techniques
- Aligning the revised law as much as possible to the ‘Safety First Guidelines’
