WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1968/98 by Kenneth COATES to the Commission. Control of major accident hazards
Date: 1998-06-30
Institutions: COATES, European Parliament
Subjects: Yorkshire and The Humber, dangerous substance, environmental risk prevention, industrial hazard, residential area, safety standard, town and country planning, waste management

C 31/106

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

5.2.1999

Answer given by Mrs Cresson on behalf of the Commission

(20 July 1998)

Article 9, which is common to the proposals for Decisions concerning the new education, training and youth
programmes (1), stipulates that the Commission and the Member States shall ensure, as part of the implementa-
tion of the coordinated employment strategy, that there is complementarity between the activities of the
programmes and Community action under the Structural Funds.

As regards the second part of the question concerning decentralisation, it should be noted that many actions under
the current Socrates/Erasmus programme are already decentralised.

In its proposals for Socrates II, the Commission plans further decentralisation by having all mobility actions
(student and teacher mobility) managed by the national agencies.

The Commission cannot agree therefore with the opinion expressed by the Honourable Member that the
programme is becoming more centralised and more remote. On the contrary, the decentralised nature of the
current Socrates/Erasmus programme will be further enhanced in its next phase.

(1) COM(98) 329, 330 and 331.

(1999/C 31/144)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1968/98

by Kenneth Coates (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(30 June 1998)

Subject: Control of major accident hazards

Recent accidents at a waste treatment plant at Killamarsh in my constituency, owned by SARP UK, a subsidiary
of Vivendi, have aroused widespread concern both in the village itself and in the neighbouring conurbation of
Sheffield. Local people wish to know how the plant in question could be brought to relocate, removing potentially
hazardous operations away from any centre of population.

What legal instruments exist to facilitate such a removal?

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission

(3 September 1998)

Community legislation on waste does not contain any provisions concerning the minimum distance between a
waste installation and residential areas. Such a provision might be introduced for landfills by a new directive (1)
which is at present being discussed in Council and in the Parliament.

However, Council Directive 96/82/EC of 9 December 1996 on the control of major-accident hazards involving
dangerous substances (2) (so-called Seveso II Directive), which will enter into mandatory application from
3 February 1999, contains a new provision on land-use planning (Article 12). This provision reflects the need,
following the Bhopal accident in India in 1984, for the land-use planning implications of major-accident hazards
to be taken into account in the regulatory process. The inclusion of this provision can be regarded as a major step
forward in the process of major accident mitigation.

The Directive aims, firstly to prevent major accidents and secondly to limit consequences for man and the
environment through controls on the siting of new establishments, modifications to existing establishments and
new developments such as transport links, locations frequented by the public and residential areas in the vicinity
of existing establishments. In the long term, land-use planning policies will ensure that appropriate distances
between hazardous establishments and residential areas are maintained. Where such establishments already exist
in the vicinity of residential areas, the Seveso II Directive calls for consideration of additional technical measures
so as not to increase the risks to people, in the context of application of the above mentioned controls.

The Commission, in close co-operation with the Member States, has started developing guidance for the practical
implementation of this provision in the Member States. The guidance is likely to be published during 1998.

(1) OJ C 156, 24.5.1997.
(2) OJ L 10, 14.1.1997.