Parliament adopts IPPC recast report

The European Parliament voted to adopt in plenary first reading the Environment Committee’s Report on a recast of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPCⁱ) Directive almost in its entirety earlier this month. All but one of the amendments to Holger Krahmer’s (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Germany) Report were adopted in Parliament’s plenary session. MEPs want EU-wide maximum emission limits (the so-called "European Safety Net) to be set for all activities regulated under the industrial pollution legislation, arguing that this would ensure that plant operators cannot deviate too much from emission levels recommended in EU pollution guidance. The Parliament also backed Holger Krahmer’s proposal to inspect installations every 18 months instead of yearly as suggested by the Commission. Those struggling to comply with environmental law would be visited more frequently.

The Czech presidency is hoping to reach an agreement in council on the revised industrial pollution legislation at the environment ministers meeting in June, though is far from certain due to diverging views between the Parliament and the Council on this proposal. Furthermore, CEMBUREAU is following closely the discussions in Council regarding the revision of annex VI which deals with co-incineration.