The European Parliament adopted the report by Jonas SJÖSTEDT (GUE/NGL, S) subject to amendments (please refer to the document dated 16/03/04).
Many of the amendments reflected the Parliament's concerns about the problem of 'historical' waste. One amendment stipulated that, once a facility has been closed, the operator
must not be considered free of his obligations in respect of maintenance, surveillance and monitoring in the stage subsequent to the closure of a waste treatment plant over the entire time-period required by the competent authority.
MEPs also said that the Member States should be obliged to make an inventory of all closed sites (e.g. tailings ponds) within three years to tackle the problem of chronic water pollution which was particularly acute in Central and Eastern Europe. The inventory, which should be made available to the public,
should contain information such as the geographical location of the site, the types of waste present and the environmental conditions of the site, i.e. quality of soil and surface water, river sub-basins and groundwater. The sites listed in the inventory should be classified according to the degree of their
impact on human health and the environment. MEPs added that rehabilitation of the most polluted sites should be started within four years of the directive's entry into force and that the costs should be borne by the waste producer "insofar as the latter is known and available". Where the waste producer is
unknown or unavailable, national or Community rules on liability should apply.
The MEPs say as well that safe disposal of the waste must be one of the objectives of the management plan, and this has to be considered already at the design stage. When planning for closure, the need for monitoring and management in the future has to influence the choice of design. This must be done in order to prevent or at least to minimise any long-term negative effects attributable to migration of airborne or aquatic pollutants from the waste facility.�