Tightening EU environmental standards often delayed

Emission standards for European industry are tightened less often than intended. Outdated legislation makes it difficult for regulators to take strict action against factories like Tata Steel.

Also read the background story to this news item: New environmental standards for Tata are delayed due to European syrupiness

Throughout Europe, industrial companies must officially meet the same requirements, based on ‘best available techniques’ (so-called bbt conclusions). For example, if a factory lowers its emissions through a new filter, other factories should also apply this in due course. For each sector, the BAT conclusions must be updated every eight years. Innovations are then included in environmental legislation, making requirements for factories stricter.

In practice, the eight-year interval is rarely achieved. Of the 35 sectors involved, 15 work with bt conclusions older than ten years. Sometimes the standards have not been adjusted since 2006, according to an inventory of NRC.

If legislation is not adapted to the latest standards, regulators will not be able to impose stricter standards on factories. The North Sea Canal Area Environmental Service (OD NZKG), which supervises the Tata Steel steel factory in IJmuiden, has already reported to the central government that it is ‘inadequate’ to protect the living environment due to weak standards. For example, the service would like to see European standards for ‘storage and transhipment’ tightened. A lot of coal is stored at Tata Steel, and dust from this causes nuisance to the environment. The European standards for this date from 2006.

Capacity shortages

The failure to review the standards every eight years is partly due to capacity shortages at the European agency that coordinates the tightening. At the office of this European IPPC Bureau in Seville, representatives of sectors, environmental clubs and national delegations discuss and determine the emission standards.

Also, review procedures, once started, are often slow. Sometimes it can take years to come to new bt conclusions. The European Environmental Board, the umbrella organization of environmental organizations involved in ‘Seville’, has already called for more efficient determination of BBT conclusions.

The North Sea Canal Area Environmental Service has repeatedly asked the cabinet to press for stricter standards in Brussels and Seville: Member States can submit sectors whose standards they would like to review. In addition to the standards for storage and transhipment, the service also wants those for the steel industry to be reviewed. For example, according to the bbt conclusions from 2012, an old coke factory, such as that of Tata Steel in IJmuiden, is allowed to emit a lot of nitrogen. The service would like to limit that – which is not possible at the moment.

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