There are six directives or other EU legislative measures under my Department's area of responsibility outstanding for transposition. These are the Directive 2000/53/EC, end-of-life vehicles, which contains two stages of transposition, the first by 21 April 2002 for new vehicles sold after 1 July 2002 and the second by January 2007 for all other vehicles. It is anticipated that this directive will be transposed in 2005.
Drafting of regulations to transpose the Directive 2002/49/EC, assessment and management of environmental noise is well advanced and transposition is intended by mid 2005.
Draft regulations are nearing completion with a view to transposition by mid-2005 of the Directive 2002/88/EC, measures against the emission of gaseous and particulate pollutants from internal combustion engines to be installed in non-road mobile machinery.
These regulations will also transpose Directive 2004/26/EC, on non-road mobile machinery, which has a transposition target date of 20 May 2005. The two related directives, Directive 2002/95/EC and Directive 2002/96/EC with its amending Directive 2003/108/EC, deal, respectively, with restrictions on the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and arrangements for dealing with waste electrical and electronic equipment. Legislative proposals for the transposition of both directives are now in drafting stage. It is intended that the directive will be transposed by mid 2005.
Legislative proposals for the transposition of the Directive 2003/4/EC, public access to environmental information, repealing Directive 90/313/EEC are in drafting. It is intended that this directive will be transposed shortly.
I am aware of the importance of timely transposition of EU environmental legislation, 200 items of which, including more than 140 directives, have by now been transposed. More recently external legal and drafting expertise have been utilised in order to expedite this process.