Final report - IMPEL-TFS NCP Exchange Days 2011

1 INTRODUCTION
This is the report of the NCP exchange days that took place on 28 and 29
September 2011 in Berlin, Germany. This was the fifth time that the NCP
Exchange Days took place. In this meeting, 35 people represented 25
environmental authorities in 21 European countries, the IMPEL-TFS
Steering Committee and the IMPEL secretariat at the NCP Exchange
Days. For the first time, Italian authorities have joined an IMPEL-TFS
activity. The IMPEL-TFS Steering Committee joined the NCP session for
half a day and had a separate meeting afterwards.
International cooperation and alignment is very important for the
enforcement of the European Waste Shipment Regulations (WSR)
1013/2006. Previous IMPEL-TFS projects showed that the enforcement
deficit of the WSR is serious and can be tackled only by joining
enforcement forces on an international level and create an equal
counterpart for the global waste trade industry. Environmental criminals
who are involved in transboundary illegal waste shipments sabotage the
legitimate trade and this has to be minimised.
To improve the collaboration and alignment of enforcement, frequent
interaction between the enforcers in different countries is necessary.
Therefore it is very helpful when enforcers have structural, personal,
informal and frequent contact during which they can strengthen their
network, exchange experiences and best practices and align their WSR
enforcement activities together.
This IMPEL-TFS NCP Exchange Days Project focuses on the National
Contact Points (NCPs) of the IMPEL network cluster Transfrontier
Shipment of waste (TFS) and the main goals of the exchange days are:
• Strengthen the network of NCPs involved in the enforcement of the
WSR,
• Exchange enforcement information, working methods and experiences
informally,
• Inform participants on new developments.
The overall goal is to improve compliance and enforcement activities of
the European Waste Shipment Regulation 1013/2006 and to stimulate
consistent application of its provisions. To reach these objectives, the
IMPEL-TFS NCP Exchange Days are organised every year. Furthermore
the NCPs attend a separate meeting of half a day prior to the annual
IMPEL-TFS conference. The specific role of the NCPs is described in detail
in a separate document that has been developed by the IMPEL-TFS
cluster.
The exchange days covered the latest experiences of several countries in
waste shipment enforcement in practice, updates about relevant TFS
activities and a field trip to the Artificial Stream and Pond System of the
federal German authorities. Furthermore, the participants took part in an
interactive enforcement exercise and four ‘specialist discussions’ that
were introduced by the participants themselves. The Steering Committee
shared the latest TFS developments and (project) plans for 2012 and the
IMPEL-TFS NCP Exchange Days FINAL Report
1/46
28- 29 September 2011 – Berlin, Germany January 2012