Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-10-Speech-2-036"
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"en.20090310.6.2-036"2
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Madam President, I am delighted that we are debating today the proposal to reform the directive on industrial emissions and I would like to specifically thank the rapporteur, Mr Krahmer, and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety for their excellent work on this dossier. I would also like to thank the Committee on Legal Affairs for its positive contribution.
These are measures which will help considerably in achieving the relevant targets of the thematic strategy on environmental pollution in an economically viable manner. Furthermore, the net benefit from the requirements in question, both at European Union level and at national level, offsets the relevant cost.
Finally, apart from improving the application of the directive, the basic objective of the reform is to simplify the legislation and reduce administrative costs to both industry and the competent authorities, in accordance as ever with the principles of the European Union’s better lawmaking programme.
That is why the proposal merges seven current legislative acts into one directive. This will improve the clarity and cohesion of legislation, both for the Member States and for companies. The benefits of this simplification are numerous.
Reducing pollution caused by industrial plants is a basic priority for both environmental and economic reasons. The proposal tabled will simplify the current legislation and, at the same time, will strengthen the application framework for the best available techniques. This will make a further contribution towards improving environmental protection and the viability of European industry. I therefore await your views on this important proposal and the constructive dialogue that will follow with interest.
Over recent weeks, the Commission has collated reliable evidence proving that the current directive on integrated pollution prevention and control is not being applied adequately and that industrial emissions have remained at excessively high levels. This situation has caused a serious impact on the environment and on the health of European citizens. Furthermore, it is distorting competition between European industries.
This unacceptable situation must stop. The main component of the integrated approach on the basis of which the directive operates is best available techniques. These techniques bring significant environmental and economic advantages.
First of all, they reduce emissions and limit the use of resources, thereby contributing to long-term improvements to the security of energy supply in the European Union. They also provide incentives for ecological innovation, which is needed in order for European industry to respond to future global demand for environmental technologies.
In order for us to adequately exploit the advantages of the best available techniques, their application framework must be strengthened and improved. That is the objective of the Commission proposal. It clarifies and upgrades the role of BAT reference documents (BREF) in the application of legislation. This makes the licensing terms of businesses throughout the European Union more similar and, by extension, achieves greater convergence in conditions of competition.
BREFs are drafted through a transparent procedure with the broad participation of the Member States, industry and other relevant agencies. The effort required in order to draft and approve them is considerable. We must support the approval procedure and the institution of the BREF in general. This will allow BREFs to play a bigger role in defining the terms on which operating licences are granted to industrial companies, which will result in our industrial plants' meeting the highest possible environmental requirements laid down in the legislation of the European Union.
The Commission proposal provides the necessary flexibility for derogations from BREFs, provided, of course, that they are warranted by local conditions at the time. However, a detailed statement of reasons and justification is required for every derogation, so that possible abuse can be prevented. At the same time, for certain sectors of industry which have a particularly serious environmental impact, minimum mandatory requirements must be set at European Union level. Moreover, relevant minimum standards have already been adopted for sectors such as large combustion plants or waste incineration plants.
As you are aware, this issue has been a particular cause for concern to the rapporteur to the European Parliament. Even though minimum mandatory requirements may be considered useful as regards certain industrial sectors, it is not certain that it is necessary or useful to define minimum standards for all sectors. Minimum standards should be adopted only if and inasmuch as they are necessary and warranted from an environmental point of view.
One typical example is large combustion plants, which bear a large share of the responsibility for atmospheric pollution. The best available techniques are anything but correctly applied in this specific sector. That is why the Commission has proposed new minimum requirements for large combustion plants on the basis of the conclusions from the relevant BREF. Provision is made to apply them in 2016."@en1
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