LEGISLATION OF MINING WASTE MANAGEMENT IN CENTRAL

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LEGISLATION OF MINING WASTE MANAGEMENT IN CENTRAL
EASTERN EUROPEAN CANDIDATE COUNTRIES Tamás
Hámor, JRC-IES Soil and Waste Unit
pecomines
INTRODUCTION This poster is to present the
preliminary results of the Regulations
Workpackage of the Inventory, Regulations and
Environmental Impact of Toxic Mining Wastes in
Pre-Accession Countries JRC-IES project. The
main objective was to map the legislative and
regulatory framework and practices relevant to
mining waste management in ten Candidate
Countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia) and to compare it with the
Community legislation in order to provide support
for the associated legislative drafting efforts
of the Community.
CONCLUSIONS 1. Democratic legislative and
regulatory authority frameworks do exist in all
studied Candidate Countries to supervise mineral
extracting activities.
METHODOLOGY For mapping the relevant legislation
in Candidate Countries the questionnaire-approach
was selected. The 73 questions addressed all
mining waste related topics.
2. The adoption of the Community waste
legislation is at an advanced stage. 3. The
mining-related hiatus and contradictions of the
acquis are already introduced to national
legislation. 4. Regulations on mining vary
according to mineral types and mining
traditions. 5. Regulatory control and sanctions
are not efficient in most Countries. 6. The
opening and operation of mines are well
regulated, closure and aftercare are less
prescribed. 7. Geological data (incl. changes in
mineral resources due to production) are well
recorded, mining operation and waste data are
less accurately managed. 8. Mining safety
regulations do not focus on environmental
impacts. 9. The use of royalty incomes for
mitigating mining related environmental impacts
is typically not in practice. 10. The legal
classification scheme elaborated has vital
implications on environmental risk and its
validity is not limited to Candidate Countries.
The detailed answers provided by national legal
experts of the PECOMINES Steering Committee from
nine of the ten studied countries (absence of
Czech contribution) form the basis of the
preliminary report.
CONTACTS website http//arno.ei.jrc.it8181/pecom
ines/ project leader giovanni.bidoglio_at_jrc.it
author tamas.hamor_at_jrc.it