EU Wast Shipment Regulations
Issues: Export to Non-OECD; Annex VII

Managing Annex VII data confidentiality

Several suggestions have been made on how to manage Annex VII so as to provide the Competent Authorities with the required information, whilst not upsetting the business confidentiality, amongst which are:-

1. For the person who arranges the shipment to consider carefully whether he/she is also the Box-6 Waste generator i.e the Original producer(s), new producer(s) or collector. The 'definitions' related to the terms used in Annex VII may be found in the Waste Shipment Regulation and in the Waste Framework Directive. [See Art. 1 of the Directive 2006/12/EC on waste AND see Art.2 of the new Waste Shipment Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006.]

2. For the person who arranges the shipment to arrange with the Consignee and the Recovery Facility 'power of attorney' to sign Box-13 and Box-14 on behalf of the Consignee and if different the Recovery Facility, on proof of delivery provided to him/her by them for example by fax.

3. For the person who arranges the shipment to meet the requirements of Art.26(3) of the Waste Shipment Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 which supports the use of an online repository which is readable at any time

   Article 26

   Format of the communications

   3. The documents to accompany each transport in accordance with Article 16(c) and Article 18 may be in an electronic form with digital signatures if they can be made readable at any time during the transport and if this is acceptable to the competent authorities concerned."

Note:That this Regulation's Art.26(3) allows Competent Authorities not to accept this method leads to uncertainty across the EU-27, particularly for transit or destination within the EU. For Countries where the Competent Authority accepts this method and goods are exported straight out of the EU this method may protect some business confidentiality.

BIR had developed two working internet based solutions, available throughout the world to those with internet access, in order to provide the Annex VII data to authorities but to preserve the business confidentiality. One solution was pure web-based, another web to fax, and a third solution to provide information to designated authority's Mobile Phones was investigated and found viable. Subsequently, these solutions have been removed from the BIR website for three main reasons: firstly the EU institutions showed little or no interest: secondly too few companies were using the internet facilities; and, thirdly there were complications from digital signatures for the "web only" and "mobile phone" solutions as the currently conceived electronic Annex VII requires multiple digital signatures. Useful experience was gained of how Annex VII is badly conceived and designed for this millenium's electronic systems.

4. For the person who arranges the shipment to make reference in Box-6 as:

• "Details available on request from person in Box-1"

Warning:- Companies / persons who arrange the shipment should take their own legal advice before using any solution.

5. To use a two part form, where the Box-6 data is kept separate from the persons in Box-2 and Box-7, and signing Box-13 and Box-14. Note: the use of a two part form would likely have to be agreed through "Correspondents Guidelines" on completing Annex VII to include amongst other practical aspects the case where a dealer or broker is the person who arranges the shipment and that dealer or broker does not himself act as new producer or collector.

There may be other solutions to preserve business confidentiality found by Competent Authorities or Economic Operators or NGOs that are not described above. Never the less an EU-27 agreed solution is needed as the Annex VII is not sustainable in its present form.