The European Parliament adopted, by 396 votes to 102 with 131 abstentions, amendments to the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control) and Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste.

The matter has been referred back to the committee responsible for inter-institutional negotiations.

Purpose and scope

The proposed directive lays down rules designed to prevent or, where that is not practicable, to continuously reduce emissions into air, water and land and to prevent the generation of waste, in order to achieve a high level of protection of human health and the environment taken as a whole. In addition, it lays down rules designed to improve resource efficiency to reduce the use of water, energy, and raw materials.

When undertaking the actions to meet their obligations set out in this Directive, Member States should consider the need to ensure a just and socially fair transition for all.

Confidential business information

The amended text clarifies that only non-confidential information will be made available to the public under the provisions of the Directive. Regardless of who publishes the information, Member States will have to ensure that operators have the opportunity, prior to publication, to request confidential treatment of the relevant material in a proportionate manner and within a reasonable period of time clearly defined by the competent authority.

Environmental management system

With a view to continuously improving the environmental performance and safety of the installation, including by preventing waste generation, optimising resource and water use and reuse, and preventing or reducing risks associated with the use of hazardous substances, the operator should establish and implement an environmental management system (EMS) in accordance with relevant BAT conclusions.

The EMS should be developed in a way that reflects the nature, scale and complexity of the installation, as well as the environmental impacts it may have. The EMS should be audited and made freely available to the public on the internet.

Granting of a permit

By 31 December 2024, the Commission should:

- adopt an implementing act to establish the format to be used for the summary and guidelines on the publication of the permits;

- submit to the Commission an assessment on the measures needed due to the changes of this Directive, including a prognosis and estimations of the accrued workload of the competent authorities to ensure they have proper administrative capacity to provide a timely, efficient and smooth permitting process.

Competent authorities should complete the processing of the permit applications no later than 90 days after receipt.

Within 90 days of the applicant submitting a respective request, the competent authority should issue an opinion on the scope and level of detail of information to be included in the environmental impact assessment.

Incidents and accidents

In the event of pollution affecting drinking water resources, including transboundary resources, or affecting wastewater infrastructure in the case of indirect discharge, the competent authority should inform the drinking water and wastewater operators affected, including transboundary wastewater operators, of the measures taken to prevent or remedy the damage caused by that pollution to human health and the environment.

Less strict emission limit values

In case of exceptional circumstances like the COVID-19 pandemic or the Russian war against Ukraine, where an installation faces a persistent interruption in the supply of raw materials or fuels or a disruption of an abatement technique’s elements due to force majeure, the competent authority may establish less strict emission limit values and environmental performance levels, for a maximum of 3 months, which may be extended by 3 months where the extraordinary circumstances persist, subject to a simplified assessment justifying the reasons and period for this temporary adjustment. As soon as the supply or abatement conditions are restored, the Member State should ensure that this derogation ceases to have effect.

Transformation of energy-intensive activities

Operators of energy-intensive installations, for which a derogation is granted or which are among the 200 most polluting installations except for installations with a closure plan for 2035 should produce transformation plans by 30 June 2027 at installation level.

All other operators of energy-intensive installations should produce transformation plans by 30 June 2029 at group or corporate level with reference to each installation.

The transformation plan should include specific information on how the company plans to become more energy, water and resource efficient by laying down the measures that will be implemented to reduce the overall consumption and improve the efficiency of its operations.

Provisions applicable to livestock farming

Concerning livestock farms, Members voted to keep the current rules and include pig farms with: (i) more than 2 000 places for production pigs (over 30 kg), (ii) or with more than 750 places for sows and (iii) poultry farms with more than 40 000 places for poultry as well as farms with more than 750 livestock units (LSU). Parliament does not want to extend it to cattle farms as proposed by the Commission.

Members also underlined the importance of ensuring producers outside the EU meet requirements similar to EU rules.

The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted the report by Radan KANEV (EPP, BG) on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control) and Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste.

The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:

Subject matter and scope

The proposed directive lays down rules on integrated prevention and control of pollution arising from industrial activities. The amended text stipulates that it should also lay down rules designed to improve resource efficiency in order to reduce the use of water, energy, and raw materials.

Members proposed extending the scope of the draft directive to cover agricultural activities, in particular the issue of pollution from large-scale rearing of animals. The scope of the proposed is extended to include intensive livestock farms with higher Live Stock Unit (LSU) numbers than 200 LSU for pigs and poultry, 300 LSU for cattle.

Environmental management system

Member States should require the operator to prepare and implement, for each installation falling within the scope of this proposal, an environmental management system (EMS). The EMS should comply with the provisions included in relevant best available techniques (BAT) conclusions that determine aspects to be covered in the EMS. The level of detail of the EMS should be consistent with the nature, scale and complexity of the installation, and the range of environmental impacts it may have.

Granting of a permit

By 31 December 2024, the Commission should:

- adopt an implementing act to establish the format to be used for the summary and guidelines on the publication of the permits;

- submit to the Commission an assessment on the measures needed due to the changes of this Directive, including a prognosis and estimations of the accrued workload of the competent authorities to ensure they have proper administrative capacity to provide a timely, efficient and smooth permitting process.

Competent authorities should complete the processing of the permit applications no later than 90 days after receipt.

Within 90 days of the applicant submitting a respective request, the competent authority should issue an opinion on the scope and level of detail of information to be included in the environmental impact assessment.

Fast-track permitting

In case of exceptional circumstances like the COVID-19 pandemic or the Russian war against Ukraine, where an installation faces a persistent interruption in the supply of raw materials or fuels or a disruption of an abatement technique’s elements due to force majeure , the competent authority may establish less strict emission limit values and environmental performance levels, for a maximum of 3 months , which may be extended by 3 months where the extraordinary circumstances persist, subject to a simplified assessment justifying the reasons and period for this temporary adjustment. As soon as the supply or abatement conditions are restored, the Member State should ensure that this derogation ceases to have effect.

Transformation towards a clean, circular and climate neutral industry

Member States should require that:

- by 30 June 2027, the operator includes in its environmental management system an indicative transformation plan for each installation. The operators of the 200 most polluting installations in the Union, should also include in their environmental management system an indicative transformation plan for each of those installations, unless the installation has a closure plan for 2035.

The transformation plan should include a greenhouse gas emissions reduction pathway and roadmap on how the installations plan to become more resource-efficient, in particular as regards energy and water.

Enabling and promoting innovation

Members proposed to give more support to breakthrough technologies and other innovative approaches.

Permits and registrations

The report stated that Member States should take the necessary measures to ensure that no installation is operated without a permit or without being registered. Member States should use any similar pre-existing procedure for the registration in order to avoid creating an administrative burden. In any case, Member States should apply a permitting procedure to the intensive rearing of poultry and pigs:

- with more than 40 000 places for poultry,

- with more than 2 000 places for production pigs (over 30 kg), or

- with more than 750 places for sows.

PURPOSE: to update the industrial emissions directive (integrated pollutant prevention and control) in line with the European Green Deal objectives.

PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: industrial emissions are pollutants (such as sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, ammonium, particulates, methane, mercury and other heavy metals) discharged into air, water and soil from industrial plants, that harm human health and the environment. Industrial emissions come from activities like electricity and cement production, waste management and incineration, and the intensive rearing of livestock.

Directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions (the IED) regulates the environmental impacts of around 52 000 of Europe’s large-scale, high-pollution-risk industrial installations and livestock farms (agro-industrial installations) in an integrated manner, on a sector-by-sector basis. It covers all relevant pollutants potentially emitted by agro-industrial installations that affect human health and the environment. Installations regulated by the IED account for about 20% of the EU’s overall pollutant emissions by mass into the air, around 20% of pollutant emissions into water and approximately 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The Directive is generally effective in preventing and controlling pollution into air, water and soil from industrial activities, and in promoting the use of best available techniques (BAT). The IED has substantially reduced emissions of pollutants into the air and, to a lesser degree, water emissions.

However, following years of experience in implementing this directive, it became necessary to modernise it, streamlining some aspects and updating it in line with the European Green Deal objectives.

CONTENT: the main changes to the IED concern, inter alia , the following issues:

New sectors covered by the revision

Extractive industry installations (mines), covering metals, rare earth metals and industrial minerals should be covered by the revision.

Larger-scale cattle farming and additional pig and poultry farms

Extending livestock farms coverage would result in methane and ammonia emission reductions, with related health benefits of over EUR 5.5 billion per year. All cattle, pig and poultry farms with over 150 livestock units (LSU) will fall under the scope of the directive. This will result in an increase in the coverage of intensive cattle, pig and poultry farms to reach a new total of 13% of the EU's largest livestock farms overall, of which cattle farms are included for the first time. These farms, at 185.000 in total, are together responsible for 60% of the EU's livestock emissions of ammonia and 43% of methane.

The relevant Best Available Techniques requirements will take into consideration the nature, size, density and complexity of these livestock installations, including the specificities of pasture-based cattle rearing systems, where animals are only seasonally reared in indoor installations, and the range of environmental impacts they may have.

More effective permits for installations

Instead of settling for the least demanding limits of the best available techniques, as some 80% of installations do currently, permitting will have to assess the feasibility of reaching the best performance. It will also tighten the rules on granting derogations by harmonising the assessments required and securing a regular review of derogations granted.

Higher uptake of Best Available Techniques

The new rules will provide incentives for a higher uptake of Best Available Techniques. This will allow installations to reach emission levels towards the most ambitious end of the allowed pollutant ranges. Under the new rules, operators and Member States' permitting authorities will be required to:

- assess the feasibility of applying the most ambitious level of emission reduction within allowed ranges as starting point when revising permits, and when setting emission limits in new permits;

- create a common methodology for allowing derogations in IED permits for industrial operators and set a 4-year maximum time period for any allowed derogations.

Synergies between depollution and decarbonisation

The proposal seeks to ensure that depollution and decarbonisation techniques occur together, where possible, to achieve the best health and environmental outcomes and harness technological and investment synergies. This will contribute to fulfilling the EU's 2030 zero pollution and net zero carbon objectives and the long-term EU's 2050 objectives for climate neutrality.

Promoting innovation

The proposal aims to foster innovation, facilitate the testing and deployment of emerging techniques with improved environmental performance, as well as to set up a dedicated centre (the Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation and Emissions (INCITE)) to support innovation by collecting and analysing information on innovative techniques and characterise their state of development from research to deployment. The centre will allow BAT to develop a forward-looking approach and help industries identifying solutions to decarbonise and reduce pollution. It will over time become a hub to foster innovation dynamics for the industrial transition on all European Green Deal policies.

Industrial Emissions Portal

Information including overall emissions of pollutants reported by operators to the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) will provide key indicators to track progress against the objectives of this initiative. Those indicators are produced on a regular basis, are comparable and easily accessible via the Industrial Emission Portal managed by the EEA.

In addition, the increased granularity of reporting of pollutant emission at installation level will allow monitoring of the main processes within sectors whose environmental performance is improving or is lagging behind. The inclusion of reporting of resource use will allow defining new indicators on use of materials, water and energy that will enable tracking of resource efficiency improvements.

Improving access to information and justice and increase public participation in decision-making

The proposal seeks to ensure access by private individuals and civil society to information, participation in decision-making, and access to justice (including effective redress) in relation to permitting, operation and control of the regulated installations, resulting in increased civil society action.

Moreover, greater data transparency and availability will increase public participation in the permitting process, giving the public greater insights into polluting activities in their immediate surroundings and access to justice in cases of environmental non-compliance with permits or contravention of judicial or procedural issues, including access to compensation for damage.

Granting of permits

With a view to further strengthening public access to environmental information, the proposal clarifies that IED permits should be made available to the public on the Internet, free of charge and without restricting access to registered users. A uniform summary of permits should also be made available to the public under the same conditions.