The IPPC Directive
New
Proposal for a Directive on industrial emissions
After a 2 year review process,
the Commission adopted on 21 December 2007 the following package
to improve the EU policy on industrial emissions:
- a Proposal for a Directive on industrial emissions (integrated
pollution prevention and control)
- a Communication "Towards an improved
policy on industrial emissions"
- an Impact Assessment
and its Executive Summary 
The Proposal for a Directive on industrial emissions recasts seven
existing Directives related to industrial emissions into a single
clear and coherent legislative instrument. The recast includes the
IPPC Directive, the Large
Combustion Plants Directive, the Waste
Incineration Directive, the Solvents
Emissions Directive and 3 Directives on Titanium
Dioxide.
An informal document on recasting has been prepared by Commission services for information purposes. This provides guidance for experts and stakeholders on the use of the recast technique, and indicates the way in which recast proposals are agreed through the co-decision process.
The Commission's proposal will lead to significant benefits to
the environment and human health by reducing harmful industrial
emissions across the EU, in particular through better application
of Best Available Techniques. For the large combustion plants alone
it will achieve net benefits of €7-28 billion per year, including
the reduction of premature deaths and years of life lost by 13,000
and 125,000 respectively.
Minimum provisions covering the inspection of industrial installations,
the review of permits, reporting on compliance and protection of
soil will be introduced with consequent environmental improvements.
The scope of the legislation will be clarified and amended to include
some new activities bringing further benefits for the environment
and human health.
The streamlining of permitting, reporting and monitoring requirements
as well as a renewed cooperation with Member States to simplify
implementation will lead to a reduction in unnecessary administrative
burden of between €105 and €255 million per year.
The Commission will continue to support Member States to improve
implementation of the existing legislation, and has updated its IPPC Action Plan for the period
2008-2010 with this in mind.
The inter-institutional procedure for this proposal can be monitored using the Pre-Lex database.
