On 7 July 2010 the European Parliament adopted its report on strengthened pollution limits for industrial installations.

For an overview of the development of the Industrial Emissions Directive, please see the earlier news item: EU Air Pollution Law (IPPC/IED).

New elements in the latest European Parliament report include:

2016 is now the year by which these new stricter limits have to be complied with, measured against the implementation of the ‘best available techniques’ (BATs) – that is, the most effective technology that can provide effective environmental protection while balancing cost and benefit.

However, MEPs insisted that member states are able to deviate from the limitations if, for certain technical reasons or local circumstances, the implementation cost would be disproportionate to the level of environmental protection obtained. This was agreed on by the member states to avoid deviating from the limits unless they have sufficient grounds on which to do so.

Moreover, Large Combustion Plants (LCPs) are allowed a longer transition period, as a result of pressure from the UK, Poland and Italy. These member states host a large number of ageing coal plants, and will be allowed to have ‘transitional national plans’ which permit LCPs to be operational until July 2020. In addition, these plants can stay operational until 2023, if their operating hours do not exceed 17,500 hours from 2016 onwards.

The next step will be for Heads of EU member states to rubber-stamp the document for it to become a law.

For more information on the European Commission’s proposal for the review of the IPPC (now the IED) please click here.

For further details please contact the ETN office