Slovak Financial Law News 2004

Amendment to Act on Waste

Act No. 24/2004 Coll., amending and supplementing the Act No. 223/2001 Coll. on Waste and amending and supplementing certain other acts

According to the argumentative report, this amendment aims to fulfil the obligations of the Slovak Republic resulting from Chapter 22 (Environment) of the process of accession to the European Union and to implement into the laws of the Slovak Republic the Council Directives relating to waste containing titanic oxide, polychloride biphenyls (PCB) and polychloride terphenyls (PCT), disposal of old motor vehicles and controlling procedure in the transportation of certain types of waste outside OECD countries.

The amendment also responds to the requirements of the practice resulting from the application of the Act on Waste.

In the field of municipal waste, this amendment specifies in more details the definition of municipal waste, while waste from the households of natural persons shall also include waste from real estate intended for individual recreation of these natural persons and from places intended for parking or storage of a motor vehicle used for the needs of household. Definitions of terms, such as waste collector, mobile equipment, contaminated equipment and decontamination are also stipulated in this amendment.

The amendment has changed limits in the quantity for the originator of waste in relation to which he/she shall be obliged to prepare a programme of waste economy.

The amendment has also extended a list of activities for which no consent, authorisation and statement of state administration authorities of waste economy in the field of disposal of specific types of waste are required.

The authority for filing an application for granting of an authorisation has been transferred from a county office to the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic (the ``Ministry''), while the cases when the Ministry is obliged or authorised to change a decision on granting of the authorisation have been also supplemented by this amendment. At the same time, requirements for the granting of the authorisation have been extended in connection with the process of accession.

By this amendment, a duty of a mass producer of motor vehicles and a mass importer of motor vehicles performing collection and transportation of old motor vehicles to register with the county office was excluded from the Act on Waste. The registration duty shall remain valid for other entities active in waste disposal. At the same time, it is stipulated that the entities specifically set forth by the Act are obliged to register within a stipulated period with the Recycling Fund and enable the state supervisory authorities to perform control of their registration.

The scope of prohibition of activities is extended by prohibitions relating to PCB disposal in connection with the obligations of persons relating to waste disposal by this amendment. New obligations are introduced for the operator of a waste dump, according to which it is required that persons providing for the activity of the waste dump should have technical qualification and the operators of the waste dump should be subject to professional and technical development and training. Operators of the waste dump are also obliged to take representative samples for the purposes of analysis performance.

The amount of the rate of the minimum contribution for one tone of waste is decreased to SKK 20.00 in the case of inert waste.

In compliance with the provisions of the European Directives, new terms, such as volume collection and separated collection are also introduced. A duty of municipalities to introduce separated collection of paper, plastics, metals, glass and biologically dissoluble waste is introduced by this Amendment.

The provisions relating to import and transit of waste as well as to waste disposal have not been materially changed, however, controlling procedures for the import of certain waste belonging to the so-called Green List for the purpose of valuation of such waste are tightened. The Act establishes a special regime of disposal of selected types of waste, such as waste containing PCB, titanic oxide, construction waste and waste coming from demolitions, while requirements for disposal of such waste, its registration, destruction and monitoring are stipulated.

The previously valid provisions of the sixth part stipulating only the processing of old motor vehicles are supplemented by broader requirements regulating the disposal of old motor vehicles. In compliance with acquis communitaire, definitions of the terms such as a motor vehicle, old motor vehicle, processing of old motor vehicles, recycling of old motor vehicles and related terms are supplemented and specified in more details. At the same time, the duties of a producer and importer of motor vehicles are stipulated with respect to requirements for the quality of used materials, their identification and provision of information.

The amended wording of the Act on Waste also regulates the conditions of collection of old motor vehicles, while the amendment stipulates that this activity can be performed only on the basis of a consent to collect old motor vehicles issued by particular state administration authority. The procedure in the disposal of an old motor vehicle whose owner is not known and could not have been identified even by a district driving licensing inspector is also stipulated in more details. It is also stipulated that the producer and importer of motor vehicles are obliged to pay a contribution to the Recycling Fund for each motor vehicle introduced in the market in the Slovak Republic and to register it with the Recycling Fund.

In accordance with the provisions of this amendment, the activity of state administration authorities of waste economy is changed and specified in more details, the State Energy Inspection is established as a state supervisory authority in the field of waste economy and a periodical control by the state authorities is introduced in relation to persons that have been granted by a consent or authorisation for the performance of activities stipulated by this Act.

The amendment to the Act on Waste extends a list of offences in the field of waste economy and administrative torts for which a penalty up to SKK 500,000 may be imposed and a period for imposition of a penalty is prolonged as well. Finally, the amendment establishes a reporting duty for persons performing the activities related to the disposal of specific material as well as for holders of the given material and equipment, and other obligations of persons performing the activities according to this Act.

This Act is amending the Act on Municipal Fees, while its application problems are eliminated and a procedure for payment of fees for municipal waste and minor construction waste is specified in more details.

By this amendment, several Council and European Parliament Directives relating to waste disposal are taken over.

This Act came into force on 1 March 2004, save for selected provisions which became effective as of the validity date of the Treaty of Accession of the Slovak Republic to the European Union.

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