The ban on mercury imports and exports should be brought forward to 1 December 2010, says the Environment Committee. The Council had rejected most of Parliament's first-reading amendments to a draft regulation on the banning of exports and the safe storage of metallic mercury, but at Wednesday's second reading, the committee voted to reinstate most of them and repeated Parliament's call for a mercury import ban and stricter rules on storage.
The Environment Committee says the ban on exports of mercury should start on 1 December 2010 - 7 months earlier than proposed by the Council; the Commission had proposed 1 October 2011. Unlike the Commission and Council, MEPs also want mercury imports into the EU to be banned from the same date.
 
The second-reading report drafted by Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL, EL) states that, in addition to metallic mercury, the import and export ban should also cover products containing mercury which are banned from sale or distribution within the EU as well as cinnabar ore and mercury compounds. Member States should meet their own mercury requirements from recovery from wastes and raw products, says the committee.
 

Safe storage of mercury stocks

MEPs in the committee agree with the Council that mercury waste should be stored either in salt mines, in deep, underground, hard rock formations, or in above-ground facilities "in a way that is safe for human health and the environment" before eventually being disposed of. 
   
The committee suggests considering a site at Almadén, Spain, for the safe storage of existing metallic mercury stocks or mercury sub-produced by European industries but not for waste containing mercury . As this site was until 2003 the biggest mercury mine in Europe and is now disused, MEPs argue that it would be a good idea to use it for the storage of mercury to assist the economy of the region.
 
The text as adopted by the committee also states that, under the polluter-pays principle, the owner of the storage facility must be responsible for its safety.

Uses and hazards of mercury

Mercury can come from waste recycling (e.g. fluorescent lamps, batteries), natural gas cleaning or the industrial treatment of non-ferrous metals.  It is used above all in the chlor-alkali industry, which has undertaken to convert to techniques that are less dangerous to health and the environment; the old methods produce large quantities of highly toxic calomel (mercurous chloride).
 
Mercury is highly toxic to humans, especially when transformed into methylmercury. It is also bio-accumulative, meaning that it concentrates in the food chain. Numerous scientific studies blame it for cardiovascular and immune-system ailments. It can affect the brain development of unborn children, even in minimal doses.
 
Mercury use is declining both in the EU and globally. Global demand is around 3,400 tonnes per year, with the EU-15 accounting for 440 tonnes in 2005.
 
Across the world, the main uses of mercury are in small-scale gold mining, the chlor-alkali industry and production of vinyl-chloride monomer, the basis of PVC plastic. In the EU only the chlor-alkali industry remains a significant user, and it is progressively phasing out the use of mercury-containing cells in its production of chlorine.
 

Absolute majority needed at second reading

 
When the full Parliament votes on this issue in May, it will need an absolute majority of its Members (i.e. 393 votes in favour) for each amendment to the Council's Common Position if it wishes to follow the committee's advice in reinstating the key points of Parliament's first reading position

The second-reading recommendation was adopted by 49 votes in favour, with one vote against and 8 abstentions -- Procedure: Co-decision, second reading -- Plenary Vote: May II in Strasbourg