Several of the UK’s representative bodies for the waste and resource management sector have issued a joint statement urging the government to ensure that the UK maintains a ‘strong role in influencing EU waste and resources policy’.

The joint statement – from the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA), the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), the Environmental Services Association (ESA), the Renewable Energy Association (REA), and the Resource Association (RA) – has been issued alongside a summary position, in response to the UK government’s recent EU Balance of Competences Review.

How does the EU affect UK environmental policy?

The review, launched in May 2013, sought to ‘provide an informed and objective analysis of what EU membership means for the UK and our national interest’, and is thought be part of its efforts to understand the impacts of a potential exit from the EU.

Specifically, government hopes the review will ‘deepen public and parliamentary understanding of the nature of our EU membership and provide a constructive and serious contribution to the national and wider European debate about modernising, reforming and improving the EU in the face of collective challenges’.

Questions asked as part of the call for evidence included whether the EU’s competence in environment and/or climate change has ‘benefitted or disadvantaged the UK’, and to ‘what extent’ EU legislation has ‘provided the right balance between protecting the environment and the wider UK economic interest’.

EU has been a ‘force for good for the UK industry’

In its shared position summary, the five bodies said there was ‘overall agreement’ that the UK’s EU membership has been (and will continue to be) an ‘advantage’ to the waste and resources sector (because of activities including the enforcement of illegal waste shipments, and the move to boost recycling through the Landfill Directive), and that EU-driven legislation had ‘sped up’ the ‘modernisation of the waste industry in the UK and improved the environmental impacts of waste’.

Other advantages of EU membership listed include:

• having a ‘stronger voice in the EU’, and being able to influence the global market in international agreements (which could ‘bring benefits to the UK, as well as influencing eco-design and the circular economy’);
• having the potential to introduce ‘common standards’ across the EU to ensure an ‘even playing field’ in waste reporting and interpretation of definitions and targets; and
• securing the ‘political will’ needed to ‘achieve the significant improvements in resource efficiency seen today in the UK’ (despite changes in government).

The bodies went on to outline that although retaining EU membership is the preferred option, the UK should ‘not be afraid of tailoring and interpreting directives in a manner which would suit [its] needs best – as long as it takes into consideration free market trade, environmental protection and other key aspects of EU principles’.

In a joint statement, the bodies said: ‘In sharing our separate responses to the government’s consultation, it is clear that there are strong common positions and concerns about the role of the EU that are shared across the industry. We are clear that the overall impact of EU waste legislation has benefitted the UK and that we want the UK to maintain a strong role in influencing EU waste and resources policy.’

The bodies went on to say that ‘much more needs to be done to level the playing field of implementation of EU legislation’, especially on delivering common standards for reporting and clarity on definitions and targets. It is thought that these could make ‘cross-EU comparisons more meaningful’.

The statement concludes: ’Undoubtedly EU waste legislation has been a force for good for the UK industry, with the Landfill Directive a prime example of how EU legislation has driven policy forward and transformed our resource recovery industry in the last decade. We doubt that successive UK governments would have managed this alone.

‘We want our engagement with the EU to be embedded and constructive, and respecting the principle of subsidiarity we believe that the UK should continue to embrace this approach – continued involvement in EU policy is good for the waste and resources industry.’

British business behind EU membership

The statement comes on the same day as a report by business lobbying organisation CBI, which argues that the EU ‘benefits UK households by up to £3,000 a year’.

‘Our Global Future’, released today (4 November), argues that British businesses are ‘convinced that, by staying in a reformed U, the UK can get the best of both worlds’.

Specifically, it argues that ‘by working with its European partners, the UK can help put the EU on a path to sustainable growth and global competitiveness’.

Writing in the foreword to the report, CBI Director-General John Cridland said: ‘We should not judge our membership of the EU on how it measures up against our past, nor by looking at the immediate economic prospects for the Eurozone, but on what we want our future to look like: open or closed; influential or uncertain. Deciding our future path is a choice we face imminently, and must make decisively.’

Read more about the EU Balance of Competences Review or the waste and resources industry joint position summary.