# CE2004084EN.01056401.xml

| 3.4.2004 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | CE 84/564 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 84/564

---

(2004/C 84 E/0641)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0276/04

by Eluned Morgan (PSE) to the Commission

(5 February 2004)

Subject:   Air pollution

Subject:

Would the Commission agree that the public has a right to be informed about the nature and quantity of pollutants released by businesses in Europe?

Is this right currently protected by EU legislation? If not, does the Commission intend to take measures towards this?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(5 March 2004)

(5 March 2004)

The Commission agrees that the public has a right to be informed about the nature and quantity of pollutants released by businesses in Europe.

Public access to environmental information is currently laid down in Council Directive 90/313/EEC of 7 June 1990 (1), which ensures freedom of access to information on the environment held by public authorities.

1

In order to get access to environmental information, a person (‘the public’) has to make a request to the public authority that he/she believes to hold the specific information. As a general rule, this right of access should be as wide as possible and only on the basis of a limited number of grounds may access to the information be refused. This Directive does not oblige the public authority to make available all environmental information it possesses on its own initiative, nor does the Directive itself oblige the public authority to collect such information.

The new Directive on public access to environmental information, Directive 2003/4/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 (2), amending and replacing Directive 90/313/EEC, contains not only the obligation for public authorities to give access to environmental information upon request, but also an obligation to actively disseminate environmental information. This Directive has to be implemented by the Member States by 14 February 2005.

2

In the field of pollutants released by businesses, the Commission will launch the European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) on 23 February 2004 in the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen. EPER is the first Europe-wide register of industrial emissions into air and water. For the first time, detailed information on the emissions of 50 pollutants from about 10 000 large industrial facilities in the EU will be publicly accessible on the internet (www.eper.cec.eu.int).

EPER was established by Commission Decision 2000/479/EC of 17 July 2000 on the implementation of a European pollutant register (EPER) according to Article 15 of Council Directive 96/61/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) (3), which is based on Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 (4). In Article 15(3) of this Directive it is stated, that:

3

4

| | an inventory of the principal emissions and sources responsible shall be published every three years by the Commission on the basis of the data supplied by the Member States. |
| --- | --- |

an inventory of the principal emissions and sources responsible shall be published every three years by the Commission on the basis of the data supplied by the Member States.

---

(1)  OJ L 158, 23.6.1990.

1

(2)  OJ L 41, 14.2.2003.

2

(3)  OJ L 192, 28.7.2000.

3

(4)  OJ L 257, 10.10.1996.

4

---