The different national measures concerning end-of life vehicles should be harmonised in order, first, to minimise the impact of end-of life vehicles on the environment, thus contributing to the protection, preservation and improvement of the quality of the environment and energy conservation, and, second, to ensure the smooth operation of the internal market and avoid distortions of competition in the Community.

A Community-wide framework is necessary in order to ensure coherence between national approaches in attaining the objectives stated above, particularly with a view to the design of vehicles for recycling and recovery, to the requirements for collection and treatment facilities, and to the attainment of the targets for reuse, recycling and recovery, taking into account the principle of subsidiarity and the polluter-pays principle.

Every year end-of life vehicles in the Community generate between 8 and 9 million tonnes of waste, which must be managed correctly.

In order to implement the precautionary and preventive principles and in line with the Community strategy for waste management, the generation of waste must be avoided as much as possible.

It is a further fundamental principle that waste should be reused and recovered, and that preference be given to reuse and recycling.

Member States should take measures to ensure that economic operators set up systems for the collection, treatment and recovery of end-of life vehicles.

Member States should ensure that the last holder and/or owner can deliver the end-of life vehicle to an authorised treatment facility without any cost as a result of the vehicle having no or a negative, market value. Member States should ensure that producers meet all, or a significant part of, the costs of the implementation of these measures; the normal functioning of market forces should not be hindered.

This Directive should cover vehicles and end-of life vehicles, including their components and materials, as well as spare and replacement parts, without prejudice to safety standards, air emissions and noise control.

This Directive should be understood as having borrowed, where appropriate, the terminology used by several existing directives, namely Council Directive 67/548/EEC of 27 June 1967 on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances4, Council Directive 70/156/EEC of 6 February 1970 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers5, and Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste6.

Vintage vehicles, meaning historic vehicles or vehicles of value to collectors or intended for museums, kept in a proper and environmentally sound manner, either ready for use or stripped into parts, are not covered by the definition of waste laid down by Directive 75/442/EEC and do not fall within the scope of this Directive.

It is important that preventive measures be applied from the conception phase of the vehicle onwards and take the form, in particular, of reduction and control of hazardous substances in vehicles, in order to prevent their release into the environment, to facilitate recycling and to avoid the disposal of hazardous waste. In particular the use of lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium should be prohibited. These heavy metals should only be used in certain applications according to a list which will be regularly reviewed. This will help to ensure that certain materials and components do not become shredder residues, and are not incinerated or disposed of in landfills.

The recycling of all plastics from end-of life vehicles should be continuously improved. The Commission is currently examining the environmental impacts of PVC. The Commission will, on the basis of this work, make proposals as appropriate as to the use of PVC including considerations for vehicles.

The requirements for dismantling, reuse and recycling of end-of life vehicles and their components should be integrated in the design and production of new vehicles.

The development of markets for recycled materials should be encouraged.

In order to ensure that end-of life vehicles are discarded without endangering the environment, appropriate collection systems should be set up.

A certificate of destruction, to be used as a condition for the de-registration of end-of life vehicles, should be introduced. Member States without a de-registration system should set up a system according to which a certificate of destruction is notified to the relevant competent authority when the end-of life vehicle is transferred to a treatment facility.

This Directive does not prevent Member States from granting, where appropriate, temporary deregistrations of vehicles.

Collection and treatment operators should be allowed to operate only when they have received a permit or, in case a registration is used instead of a permit, specific conditions have been complied with.

The recyclability and recoverability of vehicles should be promoted.

It is important to lay down requirements for storage and treatment operations in order to prevent negative impacts on the environment and to avoid the emergence of distortions in trade and competition.

In order to achieve results in the short term and to give operators, consumers and public authorities the necessary perspective for the longer term, quantified targets for reuse, recycling and recovery to be achieved by economic operators should be set.

Producers should ensure that vehicles are designed and manufactured in such a way as to allow the quantified targets for reuse, recycling and recovery to be achieved. To this end the Commission will promote the preparation of European standards and will take the other necessary measures in order to amend the pertinent European vehicle type-approval legislation.

Member States should ensure that in implementing the provisions of this Directive competition is preserved, in particular as regards the access of small and medium-sized enterprises to the collection, dismantling, treatment and recycling market.

In order to facilitate the dismantling and recovery, in particular recycling of end-of life vehicles, vehicle manufacturers should provide authorised treatment facilities with all requisite dismantling information, in particular for hazardous materials.

The preparation of European standards, where appropriate, should be promoted. Vehicle manufacturers and material producers should use component and material coding standards, to be established by the Commission assisted by the relevant committee. In the preparation of these standards the Commission will take account, as appropriate, of the work going on in this area in the relevant international forums.

Community-wide data on end-of life vehicles are needed in order to monitor the implementation of the objectives of this Directive.

Consumers have to be adequately informed in order to adjust their behaviour and attitudes; to this end information should be made available by the relevant economic operators.

Member States may choose to implement certain provisions by means of agreements with the economic sector concerned, provided that certain conditions are met.

The adaptation to scientific and technical progress of the requirements for treatment facilities and for the use of hazardous substances and, as well as the adoption of minimum standards for the certificate of destruction, the formats for the database and the implementation measures necessary to control compliance with the quantified targets should be effected by the Commission under a Committee procedure.

The measures to be taken for the implementation of this Directive should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission7.

Member States may apply the provisions of this Directive in advance of the date set out therein, provided such measures are compatible with the Treaty,