CELEX: 51983PC0173
Language: en
Date: 1983-04-08
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON THE COMBATING OF AIR POLLUTION FROM INDUSTRIAL PLANTS

27. 5. 83                            Official Journal of the European Communities                               N o C 139/5
                                                               II
                                                        (Preparatory Acts)
                                                  COMMISSION
                  Proposal for a Council Directive on the combating of air pollution from industrial plants
                                (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 15 April 1983)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                        first phase followed by progressive reduction, where
 COMMUNITIES,                                                       appropriate achieved by establishing emission
                                                                   standards for certain types of source;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
European Economic Community, and in particular
                                                                   Whereas all the Member States have laws, regulations
Articles 100 and 235 thereof,
                                                                   and     administrative provisions       concerning    the
                                                                   combating of air pollution from stationary industrial
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                 plants; whereas several Member States are in the
Having regard to the opinion of the                European        process of amending the existing provisions;
Parliament,
                                                                   Whereas the disparities between the provisions
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                   concerning the combating of air pollution from
Social Committee,                                                  industrial installations currently in force, or in the
                                                                   process of amendment, in the Member States are
Whereas the 1973 O , 1977 (2) and 1983 (3) action                  liable to create unequal conditions of competition and
programmes of the European Communities on the                      thus have a direct effect on the functioning of the
environment stress the importance of the prevention                common market; whereas, therefore, approximation
and reduction of air pollution;                                    of the laws in this field is required, as provided for by
                                                                   Article 100 of the Treaty;
Whereas the 1973 and 1977 action programmes in
particular provide not only for the objective                      Whereas one of the essential tasks of the Community
evaluation of the risks to human health and to the                 is to promote throughout the Community a
environment from air pollution but also for the                    harmonious development of economic activities and a
formulation of quality objectives and the setting of               continuous and balanced expansion, tasks which are
quality standards, especially for a number of air                  inconceivable in the absence of a campaign to combat
pollutants regarded as the most hazardous;                         pollution and nuisances or of an improvement in the
                                                                   quality of life and in the protection of the
Whereas the Council has already adopted several                    environment; whereas, since the Treaty has not
Directives under these programmes;                                 provided the powers necessary to this end, Article 235
                                                                   of the Treaty must be invoked;
Whereas, moreover, under Council Decision 81/462/
EEC (4), the Community is a party to the Convention                Whereas the Community should and must help
on long-range transboundary air pollution;                         increase the effectiveness of action undertaken by the
                                                                   Member States to combat air pollution from
Whereas the 1982 action programme calls on the                     stationary industrial plants;
Commission to continue its efforts to establish air-
quality standards and also to develop a policy
                                                                   Whereas, in order to achieve this end, certain
directed towards stabilization of total emissions in the
                                                                   principles aiming at the implementation of a series of
                                                                   measures and procedures designed to prevent and
                                                                   reduce air pollution from industrial plants within the
                                                                   Community should be introduced;
(') OJ No C 112, 20. 12. 1973, p. 1.
O   O J N o C 139, 13.6. 1977, p. 1.
(}) O J N o C 4 6 , 17.2. 1983, p. 1.                              Whereas the Community's endeavours to introduce
O   OJ No L 171, 27. 6. 1981, p. 11.                               these principles can be only gradual, bearing in mind
 ---pagebreak--- No C 139/6                          Official Journal of the European Communities                              27. 5. 83
the complexity of the situations and the fundamental         reduce air pollution from industrial plants within the
principles on which the various national policies are        Community.
based;
Whereas, initially, a general framework should be
introduced to permit the Member States to adapt,                                       Article 2
where necessary, their existing rules to the principles
adopted at Community level;
                                                             For the purposes of this Directive:
Whereas the Member States should therefore                   1.     'Air pollution' means the introduction by man,
 introduce a system of prior authorization for the           directly or indirectly, of substances or energy into the
building, operation and substantial alteration of            air resulting in deleterious effects of such a nature as
stationary industrial plants likely to cause air             to endanger human health, harm living resources and
pollution;                                                   ecosystems and material property and impair or
                                                             interfere with amenities and other legitimate uses of
Whereas, moreover, the competent national auth-              the environment.
orities cannot grant such authorization unless a
number of conditions have been fulfilled, including          2.     'Plant' means any establishment or other
the requirements that the building and operation of          stationary plant used for an industrial or any other
the plant pose no hazard to human health and have            purpose.
no significant harmful effect on human beings or on
the environment, that all preventive measures allowed
by the current state of the art are taken, and that the      3.     'Existing plant' means a plant, the building and
air-quality limit values and emission limit values in        operation of which were authorized before the date
force are not exceeded;                                      of notification of this Directive, or which was built
                                                             before that date.
Whereas special provisions should apply in parti-
cularly polluted areas and in areas in need of special       4.     'State of the art' means the state of development
protection;                                                  of advanced processes or equipment indicating the
                                                             practical feasibility of an emission limitation measure
 Whereas the rules applicable to the authorization           which does not impose unreasonable costs. In
 procedures and to the measurement of emissions must         determining the state of the art, reference should be
 satisfy certain requirements;                               made in particular to comparable processes and
                                                             equipment which have proved their value in plants.
Whereas in certain situations the competent auth-
orities must explore the need to impose further              5.     'Air-quality     limit     values'   means      the
requirements, which, however, must be economically           concentration of polluting substances in the air, which
feasible;                                                    is not to be exceeded within a specified period.
Whereas these provisions are to be applied gradually         6.     'Emission limit values' means the concentration
 to existing plants, taking due account of the costs         or mass of polluting substances in emissions from
which this will generate;                                    plants, to be established in general or for specific
                                                             categories of plants, not to be exceeded during a
Whereas provision must be made for cooperation               specified period.
between the Member States and the Commission to
facilitate implementation of the measures designed to
prevent and to reduce air pollution and to develop
preventive technology;                                                                 Article 3
Whereas provision must be made for a Committee on
Adaptation to Technical Progress to adapt the list of         1.     Member States shall take the necessary measures
plants for which a licence is required and the list of        to ensure that the building, operation and substantial
 the most polluting substances,                               alteration of plants which are likely to cause air
                                                              pollution require prior authorization by the
                                                              competent authorities.
 HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
                                                              2.     The categories of plants listed in Annex I shall
                                                              in particular require an authorization. Member States
                         Article 1
                                                              may require other categories of plant to be subject to
The purpose of this Directive is the implementation           authorization or, so far as national legislation so
 of measures and procedures designed to prevent and           provides, prior notification.
 ---pagebreak---  27.5.83                          Official Journal of the European Communities                            N o C 139/7
                        Article 4                                                     Article 9
Without prejudice to the requirements laid down by            1.    Member States shall take the necessary measures
national and Community provisions with a purpose              to ensure that applications for authorization are
other than that of this Directive, authorization may          published for the attention of people liable to be
be granted only when all the following conditions are         affected by significant air pollution caused by the
fulfilled:                                                    plants in question.
 1. The building and operation of the plant do not            2.    Paragraph 1 shall apply without prejudice to
    entail any danger for the health of the population        specific national or Community provisions concerning
    and of workers or any significant harm for human          the assessment of the environmental impact of public
    beings or the environment as a result of air              and private projects and subject to observance of the
    pollution.                                                provisions regarding commercial secrecy.
2. All appropriate preventive measures are taken, in
    accordance with the state of the art, to prevent                                 Article 10
    dangerous or harmful effects as referred to in
    paragraph 1, especially in order to reduce the
    emission of substances referred to in Annex II.           The Member States shall make available to the other
                                                              Member States concerned, as a basis for all necessary
3. The air-quality and emission limit values laid down        consultation within the framework of their bilateral
    by Community or national law are not exceeded.            relations, the same information as is furnished to their
                                                              own nationals.
                        Article 5                                                    Article 11
Member States shall define particularly polluted areas        Member States shall take the necessary measures to
as well as areas to be specially protected, within            ensure that emissions from plants are determined
which air-quality and emission limit values more              regularly in order to monitor compliance with the
stringent than those referred to in Article 4 must be         obligations referred to in Article 4. The measuring
complied with, or within which specified categories of        methods and equipment used shall require approval
plant may not be built or operated unless special             by the competent authorities.
conditions are complied with.
                                                                                     Article 12
                        Article 6
                                                              The competent authorities shall examine the
Applications for authorization of a plant shall include       development of the state of the art and/or that of the
a description of the projected plant containing the           environmental situation with a view, where necessary,
necessary information for the purposes of the decision        to imposing additional conditions on a plant auth-
                                                              orized in accordance with this Directive.
to grant authorization in accordance with Articles 4
and 5.
                                                              No such additional condition may be imposed which
                                                              would not be economically feasible for the under-
                        Article 7                             taking concerned or for plants of the category in
                                                              question.
Member States shall, on their own initiative or at the
request of the Commission, exchange information                                      Article 13
regarding their experiences and knowledge of
measures for prevention and reduction of air
                                                              The decision to grant or withhold authorization shall
pollution, as well as technical processes and
                                                              be in writing, and shall be made known to the
equipment and national air-quality and emission limit         persons concerned according to the applicable
values.                                                       national provisions.
                        Article 8                                                    Article 14
The Council shall if necessary, acting by qualified           1.    The provisions of this Directive shall be
majority on a proposal from the Commission, fix               progressively applied to existing plants, taking into
emission limit values at Community level, particularly        account their technical characteristics and the cost
for the polluting substances listed in Annex II.              occasioned by such application.
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 139/8                         Official Journal of the European Communities                           27.5.83
2.    Application of this Directive may in no event         2.     The representative of the Commission shall
have the effect of permitting applicable emission limit     submit to the committee a draft of the measures to be
values to be exceeded by the plants concerned.              adopted. The Committee shall deliver its opinion on
                                                            the draft, within a period to be set by the chairman,
                       Article 15                            having regard to the urgency of the matter. Opinions
                                                            shall be adopted by a majority of 45 votes, the votes
Member States may, in order to protect the                  of the Member States being weighted as provided for
environment, adopt provisions stricter than those           in Article 148 (2) of the Treaty. The chairman shall
provided for in this Directive.                              not vote.
                                                             3. (a) The Commission shall adopt the measures
                       Article 16
                                                                     envisaged where they are in accordance with
This Directive shall not prejudice the adoption by                   the opinion of the Committee.
Member       States of derogations        required    by        (b) Where the measures envisaged are not in
considerations of national defence.                                  accordance with the opinion of the Committee
                                                                     or if no opinion is adopted, the Commission
                       Article 17                                    shall without delay propose to the Council the
                                                                     measures to be adopted. The Council shall act
Such amendments as are necessary for adapting                        by a qualified majority.
Annexes I and II to technical progress shall be
                                                                (c) If, within three months of the proposal being
adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down
                                                                     submitted to it, the Council has not acted, the
in Articles 18 and 19.
                                                                     proposed measures shall be adopted by the
                                                                     Commission.
                       Article 18
                                                                                     Article 20
A Committee on Adaptation to Technical Progress of
Annexes I and II (hereinafter called 'the Committee')        1.    Member States shall bring into force the laws,
is hereby set up. It shall consist of representatives of     regulations and administrative provisions necessary to
the Member States and be chaired by a representative         comply with this Directive by 1 January 1985 and
of the Commission.                                           shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.
The Committee shall draw up its own rules of                 2.    Member States shall communicate to the
procedure.                                                   Commission the texts of the provisions of national
                                                             law which they adopt in the field governed by this
                       Article 19                            Directive.
1.    Matters shall be referred to the Committee by                                  Article 21
the chairman, either on his own initiative or at the
request of the representative of a Member State.             This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
 ---pagebreak--- 27.5.83                       Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s            N o C 139/9
                                                         ANNEX       I
                                               CATEGORIES O F PLANTS
                             (covered by the provisions of the second sentence of Article 3)
        1. Energy industry
           — Coke ovens
           — Petroleum refineries (excluding undertakings manufacturing only lubricants from crude oil)
           — Coal gasification and liquefaction plants
           — Thermal power stations (excluding nuclear power stations) and other combustion installations
              with a heat output of more than 50 Megawatts.
        2. Production and processing of metals
           — Roasting and sintering of more than 1 000 tonnes of ore per year
           — Integrated plants for the production of crude iron and crude steel
           — Foundries having smelting installations with a capacity of over five tonnes per unit
           — Plants for the production, refining, smelting and rolling of non-ferrous metals, having instal-
               lations with a fusion capacity of over one tonne per unit in the case of heavy metals and
               500 kg in that of light metals.
        3. Manufacture of non-metallic mineral procducts
           — Plants for the production of cement or lime
           — Plants for the extraction and processing of asbestos
           — Plants for production of glass
           — Coarse ceramics industry
        4. Chemical industry
            — Chemical plants for the production of olefins, derivatives of olefins, monomers and polymers
           — Chemical plants for the manufacture of basic organic intermediates
            — Plants for the manufacture of basic inorganic chemicals.
        5. Food industry
            — Plants for manufacture of sugar
            — Plants for slaughter of animals
            — Fish meal and fish oil factories processing 100 tonnes or more of source material per day
            — Production of oil or fat from plant or animal sources
            — Other food production plants.
        6. Waste disposal
            — Plants for the disposal of solids or liquids by combustion or chemical decomposition
            — Plants for the disposal of animal carcases
            — Plants for the treatment and reclamation of solid fuel wastes.
        7. Industrial livestock rearing installations
         8. Other industries
            — Manufacture of pulp, paper and board with a production capacity of 25 000 tonnes or more
                per year.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 139/10                         Official Journal of the European Communities 27. 5. 83
                                                       ANNEX II
                            LIST OF MOST IMPORTANT POLLUTING SUBSTANCES
                                          (within the meaning of Article 4 (2))
           1. Sulphur dioxide and other sulphur compounds.
          2. Oxides of nitrogen and other nitrogen compounds.
          3. Carbon monoxide.
          4. Organic compounds and hydrocarbons (except methane).
          5. Heavy metals and metal compounds.
          6. Particulate emissions and asbestos.
          7. Chlorine and its compounds.
          8. Fluorine and its compounds.