Stakeholder consultation on Seveso II review

A stakeholder consultation to discuss the forthcoming proposal for a review of the Seveso II Directive with the Commission was held on 10 November 2009. A proposal for a revised Directive, which will undergo co-decision, is expected in 2010. During the consultation, a suggestion was made to extend the scope of the Directive to cover pipelines, railway stations, harbours and airports. CEMBUREAU feels that this is inappropriate, as it would create an overlap between existing international and EU legislation on transport of dangerous goods (rail, road, air, maritime and inland waterways) and legislation/certification covering security/safety in, for example, harbours.

In addition, the Technical Working Group (TWGⁱ) on Seveso and GHSⁱ, which has been discussing necessary modifications to the Seveso II Directive following the adoption of the CLPⁱ Regulation since 2006, has issued an interim report. The aim of the TWG is to ensure that there is no reduction in the level of protection achieved by existing Seveso II Directive scope, and also that there is no unnecessary and significant extension of the scope of Seveso II Directive as a consequence of the GHS alignment, in order not to ensure that the burden on industry is increased. It is the intention of the Commission to maintain the application of the Seveso Directive to waste which exhibits the same potential in terms of major accidents as substances/mixtures in Annex I part 2 of the Seveso Directive.

The TWG report is expected to be finalised at the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010. The TWG interim report is available here:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/seveso/pdf/twg_report.pdf

The Seveso Directive can be found here:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:345:0097:0105:EN:PDF