Article 32 Application
1. This Regulation shall apply from the earlier of the following two dates, but not earlier than 31 December 2015: (a) 6 months after the date that the combined maximum annual ship recycling output of the ship recycling facilities included in the European List constitutes not less than 2,5 million light displacement tonnes (LDT).
Amendment rationale: CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL General background Many legal acts of the Union were adopted without an expiry date. These acts remain formally in force even if their legal effects have been exhausted. Eliminating acts that are no longer applicable or relevant permits a more user-friendly presentation and more efficient and time-saving scrutiny of tools that facilitate access to Union law: CELEX, EUR-Lex and the Directory of Legislation in force (e.g. search results would no longer show obsolete acts alongside those which are applicable). Improving the transparency of Union law is an essential element of the Better Regulation agenda that the Union Institutions are pursuing also under the new Interinstitutional Agreement on better law-making 1 . The 2014 REFIT Communication 2 announced that the Commission will prepare repeals of legislation, inter alia, in relation to standardized reporting in the area of environment. Moreover, t he 2015 Better Regulation Communication 3 called for a broad review of reporting in several policy areas including the environment. Given these links, the repeal of Council Directive 91/692/EEC of 23 December 1991 standardizing and rationalizing reports on the implementation of certain Directives relating to the environment ("Directive 91/692/EEC") is now being addressed. This is also linked to a wider Fitness Check for environmental monitoring and reporting. That Fitness Check is now underway, as set out in the Commission's Work Programme 2016 4 , which mentioned the proposal for repeal of Directive 91/692/EEC and the related water questionnaire Decision 95/337/EEC under repeal initiatives in Annex V. The repeal package consists of four proposed initiatives related to the repeal of Directive 91/692/EEC and Decision 95/337/EEC: 1. A Communication which declares the obsolescence of 11 implementing acts adopted by the Commission to establish questionnaires for environmental reporting including Decision 95/337/EEC. 2. Two proposals for Commission Decisions repealing 2 of the implementing decisions (via comitology procedures), namely Commission Decision 2011/92/EU of 10 February 2011 5 and Commission Decision 2010/681/EU of 9 November 2010 6 that have exhausted their legal effect, but for procedural reasons will be repealed via a later comitology procedure by the Commission. 3. Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Decision, which will repeal and amend provisions of the 6 legal acts referring to Directive 91/692/EEC. To prepare these initiatives, the Commission has undertaken an analysis and looked into the consequences of keeping or repealing the various obligations. The result of this work is summarised below and is presented in more detail in a supporting study which is published separately. 7 As the aim is to repeal obsolete provisions and legal acts, it is considered that there is no need for a formal impact assessment to be carried out. It is important to highlight that there are no real economic benefits expected to be harvested as a result of the repeal exercise. Main benefits will be mainly linked to have a clearer set of rules on reporting resulting from this clean-up exercise. Shortcomings of Directive 91/692/EEC The Directive 91/692/EEC (SRD) aimed at streamlining the reporting obligations of all EU environmental legislation in effect at the time of its adoption. However in practice, not all environmental reporting requirements were harmonized by Directive 91/692/EEC. For instance Directives 91/271/EEC 8 and 91/676/EEC 9 were excluded from scope. It can be also observed that the implementation of the Directive was burdensome and ineffective from the outset. One main problem was that the directive was adopted prior to the widespread use of information technology (IT). Furthermore, many of the individual instruments for which Directive 91/692/EEC set out reporting requirements were subsequently replaced by instruments which disregarded its reporting provisions. For example, the Directive 2000/60/EC 10 repealed seven pieces of water legislation and hence the related water questionnaire 95/337/EEC adopted under Directive 91/692/EEC became redundant. Instruments such as the Directive 2000/60/EC and the Directive 2010/75/EC 11 (and its predecessor, Directive 96/61/EC) 12 introduced independent reporting obligations. With the successful development of the European Environmental Agency's (EEA) Reportnet and sectoral initiatives on streamlining of reporting (e.g. the Water Information System for Europe), the need and effectiveness of a horizontal instrument on reporting was increasingly put into question. Finally, the adoption of the INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC), and the related development of the Shared Environment Information System (SEIS), 13 introduced a more modern and effective, horizontal approach to information management and reporting related to EU environmental policy. The Commission concluded at the time that "[…] a key step in implementing SEIS, and especially to trigger the expected simplification benefits, will be to modernise the legal provisions relating to the way in which information required by environmental legislation is made available. It is expected that this will be done by revising the Standardised Reporting directive 91/692/EC, which needs to be updated and brought into line with the SEIS principles. To this end, the Commission intends to come forward with a relevant legislative proposal in 2008, including a repeal of outdated provisions in the current standardised reporting directive." 14 In the end, the Commission decided not to come forward with a new legal instrument on reporting but to pursue this agenda through a non-legal approach (see EU Shared Environmental Information System-Implementation Outlook 15 ) combined with coordinated action in the different environmental policy areas (such as water, air, nature, etc.). Summary of current scope and relevance of Directive 91/692/EEC Directive 91/692/EEC refers to 28 environmental acts covered by its provisions. A number of further acts make use of Directive 91/692/EEC. Currently due to subsequent repeals of these acts (see overview in table 2), 1 regulation, 9 directives (see overview in table 1) (two directives remain subject to its provisions, namely Directive 86/278/EEC and Directive 87/217/EEC) and 23 decisions remain in force that still make reference to those provisions (see overview in table 3). In conclusion, the majority of the original obligations set out in Directive 91/692/EEC have become obsolete and have no legal effect anymore As a result, the proposal for a repeal has been made to ensure legal certainty, improve transparency, reduce administrative burden and ensure that EU legislation is "fit for purpose" in line with the Better Regulation agenda. Proposed actions to repeal Directive 91/692/EEC and related acts The first action is a proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council removing requirements for standardized reporting. It is also proposed that references to the old comitology rules are replaced by Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers as required by Article 13 thereof on transitional measures. The second action aims at adoption of a Communication on declaring obsolescence of the implementing Decisions under Directive 91/692/EEC still in force. The Communication identifies the Decisions that have become obsolete and whose legal basis was repealed. The third action will aim to repeal two implementing decisions, that still have a valid legal basis but in the meantime have exhausted their legal effects. 16 As part of the preparatory analysis, several options were considered to ensure an effective repeal whilst maintaning the legal effects, where necessary. The findings of this analysis are presented in the supporting study 17 that recommends the complete repeal of Directive 91/692/EEC provisions and removal of obsolete provisions, while making reference to new rules on implementing acts. This option consisting of the above-mentioned three actions was identified as most effective in cutting red tape and enhancing legal clarity. Pre-existing directives referred to by Directive 91/692/EEC As noted above, only Directives 86/278/EEC and 87/217/EEC (see overview in table 1) remain from the 28 instruments (see overview in table 2) originally mentioned in Directive 91/692/EEC. It is proposed to maintain the reporting provisions of Directives 86/278/EEC, while aligning it with the new rules for implementing acts established by the TFEU. The reporting requirements of Directive 87/217/EEC are not being used, mainly due to discontinuation of the use of asbestos across the EU Member States as a consequence of the phasing out of the production and use of raw asbestos and of products containing asbestos in the EU, through REACH (1907/2006/EC).
Revised version (Article 32 Application):
3. The Commission shall publish in the Official Journal of the European Union a notice concerning the date of application of this Regulation when the conditions referred to in point (a) of paragraph 1 have been fulfilled. 4. If a Member State has closed its national ship register or, during a three year period, has had no ships registered under its flag, and as long as no ship is registered under its flag, that Member State may derogate from the provisions of this Regulation, except for Articles 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16(6), 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22. Where a Member State intends to avail itself of this derogation, it shall notify the Commission at the latest on the date of application of this Regulation. Any subsequent change shall also be communicated to the Commission.