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On 5 April 2022, the Commission adopted proposals for revised EU measures to address pollution from large industrial installations. These proposals concern revision of the E-PRTR Regulation (to create the Industrial Emissions Portal) and revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive. A Factsheet and Questions & Answers accompany the proposals.

In line with the European Green Deal, the overall aim of these proposals is to progress towards the EU’s zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment and to support climate, energy and circular economy policies.

More specifically, the new rules aim to:

1. improve data transparency and public access to environmental information through the Industrial Emissions Portal;
2. re-align the sectoral scope and granularity of reporting in order to better support IED implementation;
3. improve the ability to respond to new reporting demands on pollutants and activities;
4. provide information on the industrial use of energy, water and raw materials.

As outlined below, these proposals were preceded by an evaluation (to assess E-PRTR implementation) and an impact assessment (to identify measures to address implementation shortcomings).

You may find further documents that present the proposals here.

E-PRTR evaluation

The 2017 E-PRTR evaluation was instrumental in informing the Commission’s second report to the European Parliament and the Council on progress in implementing the E-PRTR Regulation (COM(2017) 810). In early 2020, a review of E-PRTR implementation was completed, looking in detail at the industrial activities and pollutants within the scope of the E-PRTR Regulation.

The main areas where there may be potential for improving the E-PRTR are:

• Reviewing the scope of the regulation to cover other (agro)-industrial activities with significant releases and transfers, and new pollutants of concern.
• Better coherence with related environmental legislation and collecting information that helps contribute to the circular economy and decarbonisation.
• Addressing weaknesses in data (e.g. regarding waste) and exploring flexible ways of generating data.
• Enhancing the quality, ease and speed of public access to information.

These issues broadly correspond to the areas for improvement identified by the evaluation of the IED.

E-PRTR impact assessment

The Commission undertook an impact assessment to examine the need for EU action to address E-PRTR implementation shortcomings and to analyse the possible impacts of available solutions. This provided evidence to inform the Commission in its decision-making for proposing revisions to the E-PRTR Regulation.

Key milestones in the impact assessment included:

• An 'Inception Impact Assessment' (September 2020) described the main problems to be tackled, explained why EU action was needed, outlined policy options, and described the main features of the consultation strategy.
• A first stakeholder workshop (15 December 2020) introduced the E-PRTR and IED impact assessments. Presentations and recordings from the E-PRTR afternoon session are available here, whilst material from the IED morning session is here.
• An open public consultation (22 December 2020 to 22 March 2021) on the Have Your Say website.
• A detailed Targeted Stakeholder Survey (8 March 2021 to 30 April 2021) for E-PRTR experts and stakeholders.
• A final stakeholder workshop (8 July 2021) summarised the impact assessment findings.

You can see information on all consultation steps here.

The main consultant report supporting the Impact Assessment is available here.

 

For details on revision of the closely-related Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU), see our dedicated page.