WRITTEN QUESTION E-0276/04 by Eluned Morgan (PSE) to the Commission. Air pollution.
Date: 2004-02-05
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Environment Agency, access to information, air quality, degree of pollution, industrial pollution, public awareness campaign

C 84 E/564

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

The Commission is closely following the developments to which the Honourable Member refers and will
consider the need for action and the form this should take in the event of violations of fundamental rights
under Community law.

(1) Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in

employment and occupation, OJ L 303, 2.12.2000.

(2004/C 84 E/0641)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0276/04

by Eluned Morgan (PSE) to the Commission

(5 February 2004)

Subject: Air pollution

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)

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.

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.

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:

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.
(2) OJ L 41, 14.2.2003.
(3) OJ L 192, 28.7.2000.
(4) OJ L 257, 10.10.1996.