Environment ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday agreed a plan that would delay a new 65% collection target for electronic waste (WEEE) until 2020, despite being told by environment commissioner Janez Potocnik that the plan lacks ambition.

Ministers backed a Hungarian presidency compromise target of 65% collection for recycling of all WEEE by weight for 2020, four years later than proposed by the commission and parliament. Mr Potocnik said this would send the wrong environmental and economic message. Ministers agreed an interim target of 45% collection from 2016.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania will be given an extra two years to meet the 65% collection target. This was granted because consumers there use less electronics than the EU average.

The council position would make the rules apply to all electrical products, with some exemptions, from 2018. Currently the WEEE directive only applies to a specified list of products. Before 2018 the commission will conduct an impact assessment on this change. The related RoHS directive will also be amended to have open scope around this time.

Mr Potocnik complained that member states had backed a shift in the directive to 'open scope' regardless of the outcome of the impact assessment. The UK and Germany also complained about this. The commission would have to propose changes to the law if it decides in the future that an open scope will have negative effects.

The commission also criticised ministers' agreement to allow member states individually to define what a 'producer' of electrical and electronic equipment is. The commission and parliament want this to be defined at EU level. But ministers were unanimous in calling for national definitions.

NGOs condemned the decision to delay the 65% target. Green group EEB said the decision to lower the collection ambition will mean member states will not properly address the risks of illegal export and improper treatment of electronic waste.

Engineering association Orgalime called the agreed compromise to delay an open scope by six years a "commonsense approach". They said the council's version of the law would result in less legal uncertainty than in earlier versions of the legislation.

The parliament's rapporteur on the issue, German centre-right MEP Karl-Heinz Florenz, is aiming for a second reading agreement on the recast. He will present a report on the council's position to the parliament's environment committee after the summer, with a full parliament vote expected in late 2011 or early 2012.