§ Lord Greavesasked Her Majesty's Government:
When EC Regulation 2037/2000, in its draft form, was first amended to make the recovery and treatment of HCFC-containing foam in refrigerators mandatory; and when this amendment was first known to the Government. [HL1793]
§ Lord WhittyThe European Commission's proposal for an EC Regulation on substances that deplete the ozone layer published in August 1998 did not include mandatory recovery of ozone depleting substances from refrigerators and other equipment, including rigid foams. It proposed that such recovery was only to take place "if practicable". Following discussion by officials in Environment Working Group in November 1998, the Presidency proposed an amendment to the draft regulation to make recovery of ozone depleting substances mandatory but specifically excluding domestic refrigerators and removing the88WA reference to foams. Since Germany, Luxembourg, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands objected to the exclusion of refrigerators, the Presidency proposed a further amendment to make recovery from such equipment mandatory from 1 January 2002. The amendment did not reinstate the reference to foams. The Council of Environment Ministers in December 1998 reached political agreement on the regulation as amended.
The amendment to the draft regulation was formally adopted as part of the common position reached at the Environment Council meeting in February 1999. Following this it became clear that there were different views between member states on the effect of the draft regulation in respect of the need to recover chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) from insulating foam in domestic refrigeration. The UK Government's interpretation was that the amended article only required ozone-depleting substances used as refrigerants to be recovered. Between 1999 until mid-2001, the UK, at the request of the refrigeration and foams industries, sought a definitive legal interpretation from the Commission. In the meantime the new regulation was adopted by the European Parliament and Council in June 2000 and became EC Regulation 2037/2000.
In February 2000, the Commission circulated a table of clarifications which included an interpretation of the requirement in the regulation to remove CFCs and HCFCs from refrigeration equipment. It stated that this requirement did not cover foams in commercial refrigeration as "it was the Commission's understanding that the clarification proposed here is in line with the intention of the Council during the negotiations of the new Regulation". As the effect on domestic refrigerators was not settled, officials raised the issue at the EC Management Committee meeting on the implementation of the regulation on ozone depleting substances in March and again in October 2000. In October it was agreed that foam containing CFCs was classified as a "product" rather than a "controlled subtance" and therefore recovery of ozone depleting substances from commercial refrigeration need only be done "if practicable". However, as some member states emphasised the practicality of effective recovery from fridges the issue of recovery of CFC from foam in domestic refrigerators remained unclear. But in June 2001 the European Commission provided a final interpretation that Regulation 2037/2000 did in fact require the recovery of controlled substances from the insulating foam of domestic refrigerators.