Article 1 
1. The objective of this Directive is to lay down measures and to supplement provisions already in force, with a view to preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. 2. This Directive shall be applied without prejudice to the provisions laid down by Directive 83/477/EEC. Article 2 For the purpose of this Directive: 1. Asbestos means the following fibrous silicates: — crocidolite (blue asbestos), — actinolite, — anthophyllite, — chrysotile (white asbestos), — amosite (brown asbestos), — tremolite. 1. Asbestos means the following fibrous silicates: — crocidolite (blue asbestos), — actinolite, — anthophyllite, — chrysotile (white asbestos), — amosite (brown asbestos), — tremolite. — crocidolite (blue asbestos), — actinolite, — anthophyllite, — chrysotile (white asbestos), — amosite (brown asbestos), — tremolite. 2. Raw asbestos means: the product resulting from the primary crushing of asbestos ore. 2. Raw asbestos means: the product resulting from the primary crushing of asbestos ore. 3. Use of asbestos means: activities which involve the handling of a quantity of more than 100 kilograms of raw asbestos per year and which concern: (a) the production of raw asbestos ore excluding any process directly associated with the mining of the ore, and/or (b) the manufacturing and industrial finishing of the following products using raw asbestos: asbestos cement or asbestos-cement products, asbestos friction products, asbestos filters, asbestos textiles, asbestos paper and card, asbestos jointing, packaging and reinforcement materials, asbestos floor coverings, asbestos fillers. 3. Use of asbestos means: activities which involve the handling of a quantity of more than 100 kilograms of raw asbestos per year and which concern: (a) the production of raw asbestos ore excluding any process directly associated with the mining of the ore, and/or (b) the manufacturing and industrial finishing of the following products using raw asbestos: asbestos cement or asbestos-cement products, asbestos friction products, asbestos filters, asbestos textiles, asbestos paper and card, asbestos jointing, packaging and reinforcement materials, asbestos floor coverings, asbestos fillers. (a) the production of raw asbestos ore excluding any process directly associated with the mining of the ore, and/or (b) the manufacturing and industrial finishing of the following products using raw asbestos: asbestos cement or asbestos-cement products, asbestos friction products, asbestos filters, asbestos textiles, asbestos paper and card, asbestos jointing, packaging and reinforcement materials, asbestos floor coverings, asbestos fillers. 4. Working of products containing asbestos means: activities other than the use of asbestos, which are liable to release asbestos into the environment. 4. Working of products containing asbestos means: activities other than the use of asbestos, which are liable to release asbestos into the environment. 5. Waste means: any substance or object as defined in Article 1 of Directive 75/442/EEC ( 10 ). 5. Waste means: any substance or object as defined in Article 1 of Directive 75/442/EEC ( 10 ). Article 3 1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that asbestos emissions into the air, asbestos discharges into the aquatic environment, and solid asbestos waste are, as far as reasonably practicable, reduced at source and prevented. In the case of the use of asbestos, these measures should entail using the best available technology not entailing excessive cost, including where appropriate recycling or treatment. 2. In the case of existing plants, the requirement in paragraph 1 that best available technology not entailing excessive costs be used to reduce and eliminate emissions of asbestos into the air shall be applied taking into account the elements set out in Article 13 of Directive 84/360/EEC. Article 4 1. Without prejudice to Article 3, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the concentration of asbestos emitted through the discharge ducts into the air during use of asbestos does not exceed a limit value of 0,1 mg/m 3 (milligrams of abestos (SIC! asbestos) per m 3 of air discharged). 2. Member States may exempt from the obligation referred to in paragraph 1 the plants emitting less than 5 000 m 3 /hour total gaseous discharges, where the discharge of asbestos into the air is not more than 0,5 grams per hour at any time under normal operating conditions. When this exemption applies, the competent authorities of Member States shall take appropriate measures in order to ensure that the thresholds referred to in the first subparagraph are not exceeded. Article 5 Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: (a) all aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos cement is recycled. Where such recycling is not ecoomically (SIC! economically) feasible, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the disposal of liquid waste containing asbestos does not result in pollution of the aquatic environment and other sectors including the air. To this end: — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. These limits shall apply at the point where the waste waters leave the industrial plant. (a) all aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos cement is recycled. Where such recycling is not ecoomically (SIC! economically) feasible, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the disposal of liquid waste containing asbestos does not result in pollution of the aquatic environment and other sectors including the air. To this end: — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. These limits shall apply at the point where the waste waters leave the industrial plant. (b) All aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos paper or board is recycled. However, the discharge of aqueous effluent containing not more than 30 grams of suspended matter per m 3 of water may be authorized during routine cleaning or maintenance of the plant. (b) All aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos paper or board is recycled. However, the discharge of aqueous effluent containing not more than 30 grams of suspended matter per m 3 of water may be authorized during routine cleaning or maintenance of the plant. Article 6 1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that measurements are taken at regular intervals of emissions into the air and of discharges of aqueous effluent from facilities to which the limit values provided for in Articles 4 and 5 apply. 2. For the purposes of checking compliance with the said limit values the sampling and analysis procedures and methods shall be in conformity with those described in the Annex or with any other procedure or method which gives equivalent results. 3. Member States shall notify to the Commission the procedures and methods they are using together with the information relevant to assess the pertinence of such procedures and methods. On the basis of this information, the Commission will keep under review the equivalence of the different procedures and methods and report to the Council five years after notification of the Directive. Article 7 — activities involving the working of products containing asbestos do not cause significant environmental pollution by asbestos fibres or dust, — the demolition of buildings, structures and installations containing asbestos and the removal therefrom of asbestos or materials containing asbestos involving the release of asbestos fibres or dust do not cause significant asbestos environmental pollution; to that end they shall satisfy themselves that the plan of work provided for in Article 12 of Directive 83/477/EEC prescribes the introduction of all the necessary preventive measures to this end. Article 8 Without prejudice to Directive 78/319/EEC ( 11 ), as last amended by the 1985 Act of Accession, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — in the course of the transport and deposition of waste containing asbestos fibres or dust, no such fibres or dust are released into the air and no liquids which may contain asbestos fibres are spilled, — where waste containing asbestos fibres or dust is landfilled at sites licensed for the purpose, such waste is so treated, packaged or covered, with account being taken of local conditions, that the release of asbestos particles into the environment is prevented. Article 9 A Member State may, in order to protect health and the environment, introduce provisions which are more stringent than those of this Directive, in compliance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty. Article 10 The procedure provided for in Articles 11 and 12 is established for the adaptation of the Annex to technical progress and shall be followed for any modification of the methods of sampling and analysis mentioned in the Annex. This adaptation must not result in any direct or indirect modification of the limit values indicated in Articles 4 and 5. Article 11 A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up. Article 12 1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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 9 ):
A Member State may, in order to protect health and the environment, introduce provisions which are more stringent than those of this Directive, in compliance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty.
Article 2 
For the purpose of this Directive: 1. Asbestos means the following fibrous silicates: — crocidolite (blue asbestos), — actinolite, — anthophyllite, — chrysotile (white asbestos), — amosite (brown asbestos), — tremolite. 1. Asbestos means the following fibrous silicates: — crocidolite (blue asbestos), — actinolite, — anthophyllite, — chrysotile (white asbestos), — amosite (brown asbestos), — tremolite. — crocidolite (blue asbestos), — actinolite, — anthophyllite, — chrysotile (white asbestos), — amosite (brown asbestos), — tremolite. 2. Raw asbestos means: the product resulting from the primary crushing of asbestos ore. 2. Raw asbestos means: the product resulting from the primary crushing of asbestos ore. 3. Use of asbestos means: activities which involve the handling of a quantity of more than 100 kilograms of raw asbestos per year and which concern: (a) the production of raw asbestos ore excluding any process directly associated with the mining of the ore, and/or (b) the manufacturing and industrial finishing of the following products using raw asbestos: asbestos cement or asbestos-cement products, asbestos friction products, asbestos filters, asbestos textiles, asbestos paper and card, asbestos jointing, packaging and reinforcement materials, asbestos floor coverings, asbestos fillers. 3. Use of asbestos means: activities which involve the handling of a quantity of more than 100 kilograms of raw asbestos per year and which concern: (a) the production of raw asbestos ore excluding any process directly associated with the mining of the ore, and/or (b) the manufacturing and industrial finishing of the following products using raw asbestos: asbestos cement or asbestos-cement products, asbestos friction products, asbestos filters, asbestos textiles, asbestos paper and card, asbestos jointing, packaging and reinforcement materials, asbestos floor coverings, asbestos fillers. (a) the production of raw asbestos ore excluding any process directly associated with the mining of the ore, and/or (b) the manufacturing and industrial finishing of the following products using raw asbestos: asbestos cement or asbestos-cement products, asbestos friction products, asbestos filters, asbestos textiles, asbestos paper and card, asbestos jointing, packaging and reinforcement materials, asbestos floor coverings, asbestos fillers. 4. Working of products containing asbestos means: activities other than the use of asbestos, which are liable to release asbestos into the environment. 4. Working of products containing asbestos means: activities other than the use of asbestos, which are liable to release asbestos into the environment. 5. Waste means: any substance or object as defined in Article 1 of Directive 75/442/EEC ( 10 ). 5. Waste means: any substance or object as defined in Article 1 of Directive 75/442/EEC ( 10 ). Article 3 1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that asbestos emissions into the air, asbestos discharges into the aquatic environment, and solid asbestos waste are, as far as reasonably practicable, reduced at source and prevented. In the case of the use of asbestos, these measures should entail using the best available technology not entailing excessive cost, including where appropriate recycling or treatment. 2. In the case of existing plants, the requirement in paragraph 1 that best available technology not entailing excessive costs be used to reduce and eliminate emissions of asbestos into the air shall be applied taking into account the elements set out in Article 13 of Directive 84/360/EEC. Article 4 1. Without prejudice to Article 3, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the concentration of asbestos emitted through the discharge ducts into the air during use of asbestos does not exceed a limit value of 0,1 mg/m 3 (milligrams of abestos (SIC! asbestos) per m 3 of air discharged). 2. Member States may exempt from the obligation referred to in paragraph 1 the plants emitting less than 5 000 m 3 /hour total gaseous discharges, where the discharge of asbestos into the air is not more than 0,5 grams per hour at any time under normal operating conditions. When this exemption applies, the competent authorities of Member States shall take appropriate measures in order to ensure that the thresholds referred to in the first subparagraph are not exceeded. Article 5 Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: (a) all aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos cement is recycled. Where such recycling is not ecoomically (SIC! economically) feasible, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the disposal of liquid waste containing asbestos does not result in pollution of the aquatic environment and other sectors including the air. To this end: — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. These limits shall apply at the point where the waste waters leave the industrial plant. (a) all aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos cement is recycled. Where such recycling is not ecoomically (SIC! economically) feasible, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the disposal of liquid waste containing asbestos does not result in pollution of the aquatic environment and other sectors including the air. To this end: — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. These limits shall apply at the point where the waste waters leave the industrial plant. (b) All aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos paper or board is recycled. However, the discharge of aqueous effluent containing not more than 30 grams of suspended matter per m 3 of water may be authorized during routine cleaning or maintenance of the plant. (b) All aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos paper or board is recycled. However, the discharge of aqueous effluent containing not more than 30 grams of suspended matter per m 3 of water may be authorized during routine cleaning or maintenance of the plant. Article 6 1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that measurements are taken at regular intervals of emissions into the air and of discharges of aqueous effluent from facilities to which the limit values provided for in Articles 4 and 5 apply. 2. For the purposes of checking compliance with the said limit values the sampling and analysis procedures and methods shall be in conformity with those described in the Annex or with any other procedure or method which gives equivalent results. 3. Member States shall notify to the Commission the procedures and methods they are using together with the information relevant to assess the pertinence of such procedures and methods. On the basis of this information, the Commission will keep under review the equivalence of the different procedures and methods and report to the Council five years after notification of the Directive. Article 7 — activities involving the working of products containing asbestos do not cause significant environmental pollution by asbestos fibres or dust, — the demolition of buildings, structures and installations containing asbestos and the removal therefrom of asbestos or materials containing asbestos involving the release of asbestos fibres or dust do not cause significant asbestos environmental pollution; to that end they shall satisfy themselves that the plan of work provided for in Article 12 of Directive 83/477/EEC prescribes the introduction of all the necessary preventive measures to this end. Article 8 Without prejudice to Directive 78/319/EEC ( 11 ), as last amended by the 1985 Act of Accession, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — in the course of the transport and deposition of waste containing asbestos fibres or dust, no such fibres or dust are released into the air and no liquids which may contain asbestos fibres are spilled, — where waste containing asbestos fibres or dust is landfilled at sites licensed for the purpose, such waste is so treated, packaged or covered, with account being taken of local conditions, that the release of asbestos particles into the environment is prevented. Article 9 A Member State may, in order to protect health and the environment, introduce provisions which are more stringent than those of this Directive, in compliance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty. Article 10 The procedure provided for in Articles 11 and 12 is established for the adaptation of the Annex to technical progress and shall be followed for any modification of the methods of sampling and analysis mentioned in the Annex. This adaptation must not result in any direct or indirect modification of the limit values indicated in Articles 4 and 5. Article 11 A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up. Article 12 1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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 11 ):
A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up.
Article 3 
1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that asbestos emissions into the air, asbestos discharges into the aquatic environment, and solid asbestos waste are, as far as reasonably practicable, reduced at source and prevented. In the case of the use of asbestos, these measures should entail using the best available technology not entailing excessive cost, including where appropriate recycling or treatment. 2. In the case of existing plants, the requirement in paragraph 1 that best available technology not entailing excessive costs be used to reduce and eliminate emissions of asbestos into the air shall be applied taking into account the elements set out in Article 13 of Directive 84/360/EEC. Article 4 1. Without prejudice to Article 3, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the concentration of asbestos emitted through the discharge ducts into the air during use of asbestos does not exceed a limit value of 0,1 mg/m 3 (milligrams of abestos (SIC! asbestos) per m 3 of air discharged). 2. Member States may exempt from the obligation referred to in paragraph 1 the plants emitting less than 5 000 m 3 /hour total gaseous discharges, where the discharge of asbestos into the air is not more than 0,5 grams per hour at any time under normal operating conditions. When this exemption applies, the competent authorities of Member States shall take appropriate measures in order to ensure that the thresholds referred to in the first subparagraph are not exceeded. Article 5 Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: (a) all aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos cement is recycled. Where such recycling is not ecoomically (SIC! economically) feasible, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the disposal of liquid waste containing asbestos does not result in pollution of the aquatic environment and other sectors including the air. To this end: — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. These limits shall apply at the point where the waste waters leave the industrial plant. (a) all aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos cement is recycled. Where such recycling is not ecoomically (SIC! economically) feasible, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the disposal of liquid waste containing asbestos does not result in pollution of the aquatic environment and other sectors including the air. To this end: — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. These limits shall apply at the point where the waste waters leave the industrial plant. (b) All aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos paper or board is recycled. However, the discharge of aqueous effluent containing not more than 30 grams of suspended matter per m 3 of water may be authorized during routine cleaning or maintenance of the plant. (b) All aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos paper or board is recycled. However, the discharge of aqueous effluent containing not more than 30 grams of suspended matter per m 3 of water may be authorized during routine cleaning or maintenance of the plant. Article 6 1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that measurements are taken at regular intervals of emissions into the air and of discharges of aqueous effluent from facilities to which the limit values provided for in Articles 4 and 5 apply. 2. For the purposes of checking compliance with the said limit values the sampling and analysis procedures and methods shall be in conformity with those described in the Annex or with any other procedure or method which gives equivalent results. 3. Member States shall notify to the Commission the procedures and methods they are using together with the information relevant to assess the pertinence of such procedures and methods. On the basis of this information, the Commission will keep under review the equivalence of the different procedures and methods and report to the Council five years after notification of the Directive. Article 7 — activities involving the working of products containing asbestos do not cause significant environmental pollution by asbestos fibres or dust, — the demolition of buildings, structures and installations containing asbestos and the removal therefrom of asbestos or materials containing asbestos involving the release of asbestos fibres or dust do not cause significant asbestos environmental pollution; to that end they shall satisfy themselves that the plan of work provided for in Article 12 of Directive 83/477/EEC prescribes the introduction of all the necessary preventive measures to this end. Article 8 Without prejudice to Directive 78/319/EEC ( 11 ), as last amended by the 1985 Act of Accession, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — in the course of the transport and deposition of waste containing asbestos fibres or dust, no such fibres or dust are released into the air and no liquids which may contain asbestos fibres are spilled, — where waste containing asbestos fibres or dust is landfilled at sites licensed for the purpose, such waste is so treated, packaged or covered, with account being taken of local conditions, that the release of asbestos particles into the environment is prevented. Article 9 A Member State may, in order to protect health and the environment, introduce provisions which are more stringent than those of this Directive, in compliance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty. Article 10 The procedure provided for in Articles 11 and 12 is established for the adaptation of the Annex to technical progress and shall be followed for any modification of the methods of sampling and analysis mentioned in the Annex. This adaptation must not result in any direct or indirect modification of the limit values indicated in Articles 4 and 5. Article 11 A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up. Article 12 1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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 3 ):
1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that asbestos emissions into the air, asbestos discharges into the aquatic environment, and solid asbestos waste are, as far as reasonably practicable, reduced at source and prevented. In the case of the use of asbestos, these measures should entail using the best available technology not entailing excessive cost, including where appropriate recycling or treatment. 2. In the case of existing plants, the requirement in paragraph 1 that best available technology not entailing excessive costs be used to reduce and eliminate emissions of asbestos into the air shall be applied taking into account the elements set out in Article 13 of Directive 84/360/EEC.
Article 4 
1. Without prejudice to Article 3, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the concentration of asbestos emitted through the discharge ducts into the air during use of asbestos does not exceed a limit value of 0,1 mg/m 3 (milligrams of abestos (SIC! asbestos) per m 3 of air discharged). 2. Member States may exempt from the obligation referred to in paragraph 1 the plants emitting less than 5 000 m 3 /hour total gaseous discharges, where the discharge of asbestos into the air is not more than 0,5 grams per hour at any time under normal operating conditions. When this exemption applies, the competent authorities of Member States shall take appropriate measures in order to ensure that the thresholds referred to in the first subparagraph are not exceeded. Article 5 Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: (a) all aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos cement is recycled. Where such recycling is not ecoomically (SIC! economically) feasible, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the disposal of liquid waste containing asbestos does not result in pollution of the aquatic environment and other sectors including the air. To this end: — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. These limits shall apply at the point where the waste waters leave the industrial plant. (a) all aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos cement is recycled. Where such recycling is not ecoomically (SIC! economically) feasible, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the disposal of liquid waste containing asbestos does not result in pollution of the aquatic environment and other sectors including the air. To this end: — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. These limits shall apply at the point where the waste waters leave the industrial plant. (b) All aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos paper or board is recycled. However, the discharge of aqueous effluent containing not more than 30 grams of suspended matter per m 3 of water may be authorized during routine cleaning or maintenance of the plant. (b) All aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos paper or board is recycled. However, the discharge of aqueous effluent containing not more than 30 grams of suspended matter per m 3 of water may be authorized during routine cleaning or maintenance of the plant. Article 6 1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that measurements are taken at regular intervals of emissions into the air and of discharges of aqueous effluent from facilities to which the limit values provided for in Articles 4 and 5 apply. 2. For the purposes of checking compliance with the said limit values the sampling and analysis procedures and methods shall be in conformity with those described in the Annex or with any other procedure or method which gives equivalent results. 3. Member States shall notify to the Commission the procedures and methods they are using together with the information relevant to assess the pertinence of such procedures and methods. On the basis of this information, the Commission will keep under review the equivalence of the different procedures and methods and report to the Council five years after notification of the Directive. Article 7 — activities involving the working of products containing asbestos do not cause significant environmental pollution by asbestos fibres or dust, — the demolition of buildings, structures and installations containing asbestos and the removal therefrom of asbestos or materials containing asbestos involving the release of asbestos fibres or dust do not cause significant asbestos environmental pollution; to that end they shall satisfy themselves that the plan of work provided for in Article 12 of Directive 83/477/EEC prescribes the introduction of all the necessary preventive measures to this end. Article 8 Without prejudice to Directive 78/319/EEC ( 11 ), as last amended by the 1985 Act of Accession, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — in the course of the transport and deposition of waste containing asbestos fibres or dust, no such fibres or dust are released into the air and no liquids which may contain asbestos fibres are spilled, — where waste containing asbestos fibres or dust is landfilled at sites licensed for the purpose, such waste is so treated, packaged or covered, with account being taken of local conditions, that the release of asbestos particles into the environment is prevented. Article 9 A Member State may, in order to protect health and the environment, introduce provisions which are more stringent than those of this Directive, in compliance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty. Article 10 The procedure provided for in Articles 11 and 12 is established for the adaptation of the Annex to technical progress and shall be followed for any modification of the methods of sampling and analysis mentioned in the Annex. This adaptation must not result in any direct or indirect modification of the limit values indicated in Articles 4 and 5. Article 11 A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up. Article 12 1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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 13 ):
2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment.
Article 5 
Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: (a) all aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos cement is recycled. Where such recycling is not ecoomically (SIC! economically) feasible, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the disposal of liquid waste containing asbestos does not result in pollution of the aquatic environment and other sectors including the air. To this end: — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. These limits shall apply at the point where the waste waters leave the industrial plant. (a) all aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos cement is recycled. Where such recycling is not ecoomically (SIC! economically) feasible, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the disposal of liquid waste containing asbestos does not result in pollution of the aquatic environment and other sectors including the air. To this end: — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. These limits shall apply at the point where the waste waters leave the industrial plant. (b) All aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos paper or board is recycled. However, the discharge of aqueous effluent containing not more than 30 grams of suspended matter per m 3 of water may be authorized during routine cleaning or maintenance of the plant. (b) All aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos paper or board is recycled. However, the discharge of aqueous effluent containing not more than 30 grams of suspended matter per m 3 of water may be authorized during routine cleaning or maintenance of the plant. Article 6 1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that measurements are taken at regular intervals of emissions into the air and of discharges of aqueous effluent from facilities to which the limit values provided for in Articles 4 and 5 apply. 2. For the purposes of checking compliance with the said limit values the sampling and analysis procedures and methods shall be in conformity with those described in the Annex or with any other procedure or method which gives equivalent results. 3. Member States shall notify to the Commission the procedures and methods they are using together with the information relevant to assess the pertinence of such procedures and methods. On the basis of this information, the Commission will keep under review the equivalence of the different procedures and methods and report to the Council five years after notification of the Directive. Article 7 — activities involving the working of products containing asbestos do not cause significant environmental pollution by asbestos fibres or dust, — the demolition of buildings, structures and installations containing asbestos and the removal therefrom of asbestos or materials containing asbestos involving the release of asbestos fibres or dust do not cause significant asbestos environmental pollution; to that end they shall satisfy themselves that the plan of work provided for in Article 12 of Directive 83/477/EEC prescribes the introduction of all the necessary preventive measures to this end. Article 8 Without prejudice to Directive 78/319/EEC ( 11 ), as last amended by the 1985 Act of Accession, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — in the course of the transport and deposition of waste containing asbestos fibres or dust, no such fibres or dust are released into the air and no liquids which may contain asbestos fibres are spilled, — where waste containing asbestos fibres or dust is landfilled at sites licensed for the purpose, such waste is so treated, packaged or covered, with account being taken of local conditions, that the release of asbestos particles into the environment is prevented. Article 9 A Member State may, in order to protect health and the environment, introduce provisions which are more stringent than those of this Directive, in compliance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty. Article 10 The procedure provided for in Articles 11 and 12 is established for the adaptation of the Annex to technical progress and shall be followed for any modification of the methods of sampling and analysis mentioned in the Annex. This adaptation must not result in any direct or indirect modification of the limit values indicated in Articles 4 and 5. Article 11 A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up. Article 12 1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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 5 ):
Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: (a) all aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos cement is recycled. Where such recycling is not ecoomically (SIC! economically) feasible, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the disposal of liquid waste containing asbestos does not result in pollution of the aquatic environment and other sectors including the air. To this end: — the limit value of 30 grams of total suspended matter per m 3 of aqueous effluent discharged shall apply, — the competent authorities of Member States shall, for each plant concerned, specify the volume of discharges into water of the total quantity of suspended matter discharged per tonne of product taking account of the specific situation of the plant. These limits shall apply at the point where the waste waters leave the industrial plant. (b) All aqueous effluent arising in the manufacture of asbestos paper or board is recycled. However, the discharge of aqueous effluent containing not more than 30 grams of suspended matter per m 3 of water may be authorized during routine cleaning or maintenance of the plant.
Article 6 
1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that measurements are taken at regular intervals of emissions into the air and of discharges of aqueous effluent from facilities to which the limit values provided for in Articles 4 and 5 apply. 2. For the purposes of checking compliance with the said limit values the sampling and analysis procedures and methods shall be in conformity with those described in the Annex or with any other procedure or method which gives equivalent results. 3. Member States shall notify to the Commission the procedures and methods they are using together with the information relevant to assess the pertinence of such procedures and methods. On the basis of this information, the Commission will keep under review the equivalence of the different procedures and methods and report to the Council five years after notification of the Directive. Article 7 Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — activities involving the working of products containing asbestos do not cause significant environmental pollution by asbestos fibres or dust, — the demolition of buildings, structures and installations containing asbestos and the removal therefrom of asbestos or materials containing asbestos involving the release of asbestos fibres or dust do not cause significant asbestos environmental pollution; to that end they shall satisfy themselves that the plan of work provided for in Article 12 of Directive 83/477/EEC prescribes the introduction of all the necessary preventive measures to this end. Article 8 Without prejudice to Directive 78/319/EEC ( 11 ), as last amended by the 1985 Act of Accession, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — in the course of the transport and deposition of waste containing asbestos fibres or dust, no such fibres or dust are released into the air and no liquids which may contain asbestos fibres are spilled, — where waste containing asbestos fibres or dust is landfilled at sites licensed for the purpose, such waste is so treated, packaged or covered, with account being taken of local conditions, that the release of asbestos particles into the environment is prevented. Article 9 A Member State may, in order to protect health and the environment, introduce provisions which are more stringent than those of this Directive, in compliance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty. Article 10 The procedure provided for in Articles 11 and 12 is established for the adaptation of the Annex to technical progress and shall be followed for any modification of the methods of sampling and analysis mentioned in the Annex. This adaptation must not result in any direct or indirect modification of the limit values indicated in Articles 4 and 5. Article 11 A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up. Article 12 1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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).
Article 7 
Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — activities involving the working of products containing asbestos do not cause significant environmental pollution by asbestos fibres or dust, — the demolition of buildings, structures and installations containing asbestos and the removal therefrom of asbestos or materials containing asbestos involving the release of asbestos fibres or dust do not cause significant asbestos environmental pollution; to that end they shall satisfy themselves that the plan of work provided for in Article 12 of Directive 83/477/EEC prescribes the introduction of all the necessary preventive measures to this end. Article 8 Without prejudice to Directive 78/319/EEC ( 11 ), as last amended by the 1985 Act of Accession, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — in the course of the transport and deposition of waste containing asbestos fibres or dust, no such fibres or dust are released into the air and no liquids which may contain asbestos fibres are spilled, — where waste containing asbestos fibres or dust is landfilled at sites licensed for the purpose, such waste is so treated, packaged or covered, with account being taken of local conditions, that the release of asbestos particles into the environment is prevented. Article 9 A Member State may, in order to protect health and the environment, introduce provisions which are more stringent than those of this Directive, in compliance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty. Article 10 The procedure provided for in Articles 11 and 12 is established for the adaptation of the Annex to technical progress and shall be followed for any modification of the methods of sampling and analysis mentioned in the Annex. This adaptation must not result in any direct or indirect modification of the limit values indicated in Articles 4 and 5. Article 11 A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up. Article 12 1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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 7 ):
Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — activities involving the working of products containing asbestos do not cause significant environmental pollution by asbestos fibres or dust, — the demolition of buildings, structures and installations containing asbestos and the removal therefrom of asbestos or materials containing asbestos involving the release of asbestos fibres or dust do not cause significant asbestos environmental pollution; to that end they shall satisfy themselves that the plan of work provided for in Article 12 of Directive 83/477/EEC prescribes the introduction of all the necessary preventive measures to this end.
Article 8 
Without prejudice to Directive 78/319/EEC ( 11 ), as last amended by the 1985 Act of Accession, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — in the course of the transport and deposition of waste containing asbestos fibres or dust, no such fibres or dust are released into the air and no liquids which may contain asbestos fibres are spilled, — where waste containing asbestos fibres or dust is landfilled at sites licensed for the purpose, such waste is so treated, packaged or covered, with account being taken of local conditions, that the release of asbestos particles into the environment is prevented. Article 9 A Member State may, in order to protect health and the environment, introduce provisions which are more stringent than those of this Directive, in compliance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty. Article 10 The procedure provided for in Articles 11 and 12 is established for the adaptation of the Annex to technical progress and shall be followed for any modification of the methods of sampling and analysis mentioned in the Annex. This adaptation must not result in any direct or indirect modification of the limit values indicated in Articles 4 and 5. Article 11 A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up. Article 12 1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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 8 ):
Without prejudice to Directive 78/319/EEC ( 2 ), as last amended by the 1985 Act of Accession, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that: — in the course of the transport and deposition of waste containing asbestos fibres or dust, no such fibres or dust are released into the air and no liquids which may contain asbestos fibres are spilled, — where waste containing asbestos fibres or dust is landfilled at sites licensed for the purpose, such waste is so treated, packaged or covered, with account being taken of local conditions, that the release of asbestos particles into the environment is prevented.
Article 9 
A Member State may, in order to protect health and the environment, introduce provisions which are more stringent than those of this Directive, in compliance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty. Article 10 The procedure provided for in Articles 11 and 12 is established for the adaptation of the Annex to technical progress and shall be followed for any modification of the methods of sampling and analysis mentioned in the Annex. This adaptation must not result in any direct or indirect modification of the limit values indicated in Articles 4 and 5. Article 11 A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up. Article 12 1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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).
Article 10 
The procedure provided for in Articles 11 and 12 is established for the adaptation of the Annex to technical progress and shall be followed for any modification of the methods of sampling and analysis mentioned in the Annex. This adaptation must not result in any direct or indirect modification of the limit values indicated in Articles 4 and 5. Article 11 A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up. Article 12 1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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 10 ):
The procedure provided for in Articles 11 and 12 is established for the adaptation of the Annex to technical progress and shall be followed for any modification of the methods of sampling and analysis mentioned in the Annex. This adaptation must not result in any direct or indirect modification of the limit values indicated in Articles 4 and 5.
Article 11 
A Committee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, consisting of representatives of the Member States and chaired by a representative of the Commission, is hereby set up. Article 12 1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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).
Article 12 
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 12 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure. Article 13 1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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 12 ):
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Commitee for the adaptation of this Directive to scientific and technical progress. 2. Where reference is made to this Article, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC ( 3 ) shall apply. The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months. 3. The commitee shall adopt its rules of procedure.
Article 13 
1. At intervals of three years the Member States shall send information to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall also cover other pertinent Community Directives. This report shall be drawn up on the basis of a questionnaire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive 91/692/EEC ( 13 ). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent to the Member States six months before the start of the period covered by the report. The report shall be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year period covered by it. The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996 inclusive. The Commission shall publish a Community report on the implementation of the Directive within nine months of receiving the reports from the Member States. 2. Where necessary, in the light of the evolution of knowledge in the medical field and that of technological progress, the Commission shall submit further proposals aimed at preventing and reducing pollution by asbestos in the interests of the protection of human health and the environment. Article 14 1. Subject to paragraph 2, Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 31 December 1988. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 2. Member States shall adopt and publish the provisions necessary to comply with Articles 4 and 5 as soon as possible and in any case not later than 30 June 1991 for plants built or authorized before the date given in paragraph 1. 3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. Article 15 This Directive is addressd to the Member States.
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).