Poland – statement by the Ministry of the Environment on recycling of the end-of-life-vehicles

On 25 November 2004, Poland‘‘s Act on the End-of-Life Vehicles was passed by the Parliament. The Act transposed all the requirements as included in the European Parliament and Council Directive 2000/53/EC of 18 September 2000 on the End-of-Life Vehicles (Official Journal of the European Communities L 269 of 21 November 2000, further amended) into the Polish legal framework.



The difficulties to transpose the Directive have resulted, amongst others, from the fact that it has not taken into account the problems being typical in the Polish circumstances, e.g. meaningful individual exports or the inter-Community purchase of vehicles (the Directive imposed its obligation exclusively on the operators, including so called professional importers), or the problem of “no-one‘‘s” vehicles, (i.e. such ones, the manufacturers and importers of which and their legal successors no more exist).



Moreover, the Directive imposed the obligations in a manner not too much precise, while introducing mainly the category of so called “economic operators”, that includes the manufacturers and importers of vehicles, on one hand, and also the operators who perform their disassembling and recycling, and the insurance companies, on other hand. That brought about controversy between various operators‘‘ groups.



Those were just the reasons for so long-lasting legislative work. In the Polish End-of-Life Vehicle Act, the major obligations are assigned to those who are introducing the vehicles on the market (manufacturers and importers) and to the operators who manage the disassembly stations, and to those entrepreneurs who manage the vehicle collection sites in co-operation with the former. Those who have been introducing the vehicles on the market are now being held responsible for operation of such vehicles which have been only properly designed and manufactured (including those which contain limited amounts of hazardous substances appropriate for recovery and recycling and those parts have been made of plastics and marked adequately), and for establishment and maintenance of a network for collection of the end-of-life vehicles (e.g. by means of entering contracts with the operators who manage dismantling stations).



The operators who manage dismantling stations, on admission of the vehicles in their stations, shall be held responsible for granting the disassembly certificates and de-registration of the vehicle documents, appropriate disassembly of the vehicles, and achievement of the recovery and recycling levels as prescribed. On reception of the vehicles in their stations the operators of the vehicle collection sites shall grant the disassembly certificates and de-register the vehicle documents, and they are obliged for delivery of the vehicles received to the dismantling station, which they have concluded relevant contract with. The role of the vehicle users within the system as the whole has to be emphasised. They have been held responsible for delivery of an end-of-life-vehicle into dismantling station or to vehicle collection site, and then, for de-registration of the vehicle within 30 day deadline