Parliament takes Commission to ECJ over decaBDE waiver

摘要

The European Parliament has lived up to its threat to mount a legal challenge to the Commission's 13 October decision to grant a waiver from an EU dangerous substances ban for the brominated flame retardant decabromodiphenylether (decaBDE). On 6 January Parliament's President Josep Borrell signed off a decision to start proceedings in the European Court of Justice over the waiver from the ban in the 2003 directive on the restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment. DecaBDE was due to be banned alongside other hazardous substances from 1 July 2006 under the RoHS directive, but in October the Commission adopted the decision granting a waiver despite stiff opposition from Parliament and several member states. Denmark is also challenging the exemption in a separate ECJ case.