COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION of 19 December 1978 to the Member States regarding methods of evaluating the cost of pollution control to industry (79/3/EEC)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community,

Having regard to the draft recommendation submitted by the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (2),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3),

Whereas in the Programme of Action of the European Communities on the Environment adopted on 22 November 1973 (4), it is noted inter alia that if the Member States were to differ in their estimates as to the cost of anti-pollution measures, particularly if these estimates were not based on comparable legislative measures and a uniform definition of costs, the possible consequences of this for policies at the national level would severely hamper the implementation of a common policy;

Whereas the cost evaluation is intended to determine the size of the burden to be borne by the economy as a whole or by individual sectors of industry where specific measures are taken by the authorities to protect the environment, to provide data on the most cost-effective ways of reducing pollution and, under certain conditions, to help to determine quality objectives and/or emission standards;

Whereas the evaluation of the costs of existing pollution control plants not only provides information on the costs of measures already taken but can also be used to facilitate the forecasting of the costs of future measures;

Whereas it is of great advantage to both national and local authorities and for decision-making at Community level, to have access to comparable data on the costs of existing pollution control plants in industry from various Member States;

Whereas for this purpose it would be beneficial for the Member States to use as similar methods of evaluation as possible by adopting a common set of principles for the future studies of pollution control costs in industry;

Recommends, that for the evaluation of the cost of pollution control in industry, the Member States use the principles, definitions and methods contained in the Annex and that whenever possible they communicate to the Commission the results of all the studies carried out in this field.

Done at Brussels, 19 December 1978.

For the Council

The President

G. BAUM (1)OJ No C 10, 12.1.1978, p. 6. (2)OJ No C 131, 5.6.1978, p. 82. (3)OJ No C 283, 27.11.1978, p. 25. (4)OJ No C 112, 20.12.1973, p. 3.

ANNEX PRINCIPLES, DEFINITIONS AND METHODS

1. The pollution control costs to be evaluated in the industries concerned should relate to measures based on environmental considerations contributing to the prevention, elimination or reduction of pollution of the following kind: (a) water pollution;

(b) air pollution;

(c) noise or vibrations;

(d) solid or liquid waste.

2. (a) The actual collection of cost data should be preceded by technical surveys of the industry concerned in those sectors where a survey seems desirable. This will be appropriate primarily where the sector concerned consists of a large number of firms and a relatively small number of different production processes. This descriptive phase should identify the different production technologies used in the industry, their environmentally harmful by-products, and the primary and secondary pollution control processes (including changes in the production process) used to reduce these. Other factors of the processes which are likely to give rise in practice to considerable differences in cost for otherwise similar pollution control processes should also be identified. Such factors may include, for example, the age of the plant or the characteristics of the raw materials it uses. In such a case the same process operated by equipment of different ages or using different raw materials should be treated as several separate processes for the collection of cost data.

(b) Such a survey would result in a catalogue of different technical pollution control measures. For each of these measures, in so far as these are considered relevant by the competent authorities for the pollution under consideration, the cost data should then be collected.

(c) For each measure in the final catalogue the survey should determine the probable lifetimes of the plant and equipment concerned. It should also determine the frequency of use and relative importance of each pollution control process within the industry.

3. As regards measures taken only partially for environmental reasons, an absolute amount attributable to pollution control should be determined as precisely as possible and the criteria used for its derivation stated. The amount should be expressed as a proportion of the total cost of the measures concerned (pollution control relevancy factor).

4. (a) Cost data concerning the cost of pollution control measures should be collected in such a way that an evaluation of each of the following cost categories is available separately for each pollution control technique identified in the technical survey (1):

Investment costs (new or replacement to be shown separately): (i) expenditure on the construction or acquisition of plant and equipment;

(ii) expenditure on the construction or acquisition of buildings;

(iii) expenditure on the acquisition of land and/or the market value of land already owned;

(iv) expenditure on improvements;

(v) expenditure on loss of output during transition. (1)Reference is made to the definitions in the European System of National Accounts (ESA), as published by the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities in 1970.

Running costs: (vi) expenditure on labour;

(vii) expenditure on energy;

(viii) expenditure on materials other than energy;

(ix) expenditure on services;

(x) expenditure on rents;

(xi) expenditure on repairs.

(b) If detailed figures are not available in industry for each of these cost categories, they should be estimated.

(c) The abovementioned data should not include value-added tax for those categories on which it is payable and should be calculated as gross costs, without making deduction for any subsidies. The years to which categories (i) to (v) refer should be identified, whereas categories (vi) to (xi) should refer to costs incurred in the preceding financial year.

5. The above cost data should be accompanied by the following information inter alia: (a) the market value of any materials recovered or saved as a result of the operation of the pollution control plant in question, irrespective of whether such materials are sold or used internally, and, where appropriate, a financial assessment of other factors entailing a reduction in costs;

(b) the exact levels of the values of emissions by the relevant production plant in a specified time-period both before and after introduction of the pollution control measure to which the costs refer and, where possible, the impact of the measure on the quality of the environment;

(c) the annual production capacity and the annual production volume of the production process to which the pollution control costs refer.

6. The following information should also be obtained: (a) the amount of any pollution taxes or levies paid by a firm in addition to, or instead of, pollution control measures, both before and after installation of the pollution control plant in question (1);

(b) the nature and amount of any financial aid, whether in the form of subsidies, tax concessions or preferential loans received by industry in respect of the pollution control installations concerned.

7. Any data other than the above which it is deemed desirable to collect should be expressed as separate figures, without being incorporated into any of the categories defined above.

Confidentiality

8. (a) Information acquired as a result of the application of this recommendation may be used only for the purposes of this recommendation.

(b) The Commission and the competent authorities of the Member States, their officials and other servants shall not disclose information acquired by them pursuant to this recommendation and of a kind covered by the obligation of professional secrecy.

(c) Subparagraphs (a) and (b) shall not prevent publication of general information or surveys which do not contain information relating to particular undertakings or associations of undertakings. (1)Reference is made to the definitions in the European System of National Accounts (ESA), as published by the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities in 1970.