Ministers meeting at the Environment Council held in Brussels on 14 March, reached a political agreement on its first-reading position on revised EU rules concerning waste electronic and electrical equipment. During this meeting, ministers also exchanged views on possible justifications to allow member states to restrict the cultivation of genetically modified organisms in their territory, and adopted conclusions on the review of the Community strategy concerning mercury as well as conclusions on the follow-up to the UN climate conference in Cancún in December 2010.

On 14 March, the Council determined its first-reading position on revised EU rules concerning waste electric and electronic equipment. This agreement, which is designed to improve collection and recycling of used electronic devices and to reduce illegal exports of such waste from the EU, aims to encourage the re-use of entire appliances.

Further to this meeting, the Council "opened" the scope of the law to cover in principle all electric and electronic equipment six years from the entry into force of the recast, which means that photovoltaic panels will be immediately included and will have to be separately collected and properly treated. Furthermore, ministers agreed that member states must annually collect 45% of the average weight of electrical and electronic equipment placed on their national markets. This would take effect four years after the entry into force of the revised law. Four years later, member states are to achieve a 65% collection rate. The Commission can propose changes to the scope after analysing the impact of the open scope on businesses and the environment.

In any case, and in order to make collection more effective, the recast would adapt this target to the size and economic situation of individual EU countries. The recast of WEEE Directive was proposed by the European  Commission in December 2008 and European Parliament's first reading position was voted on 3 February 2011. From now on, negotiations between Council and Parliament are expected to take place in the second half of 2011.

Cultivation of genetically modified organisms

Ministers also debated on possible justifications that would allow member states to restrict the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in their territory. Some delegations felt that this list could be appropriate, while some other considered it to be non-exhaustive and called for the inclusion of more possible grounds. Furthermore, given that a couple of delegations raised concern about the overall workability of the proposal, the legal services of the Council will be examining it assess its compatibility with the internal market and WTO rules.

The Council also adopted the conclusions on the follow-up to the UN climate conference in Cancún in December 2010, which discussed the global framework for climate protection, and welcomed the outcomes of the conference, while calling  on the EU's international partners to fully implement the agreements. Council also gave some orientations for the ongoing intensive work to implement the Cancún agreements until the next UN climate conference in Durban at the end of this year. It also adopted the conclusions on the review of the Community strategy concerning mercury and welcomed the significant progress made in the implementation of the strategy achieved in the last five years.

Finally, ministers also discussed environmental aspects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in view of its upcoming reform. This debate within the Council was a response to the Commission communication The CAP towards 2020: Meeting the food, natural resources and territorial challenges of the future put forward in November 2010.