PURPOSE: to transform the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) into an Industrial Emissions Portal.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: Regulation (EC) No 166/2006 established the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR), as the Europe-wide register providing public access to key environmental data from industrial facilities located in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The E‑PRTR contains data reported annually by some 30 000 industrial facilities which cover 65 economic activities across the EU. The Regulation implements the 2006 Kyiv Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers, which entered into force in 2009. It is the only legally binding international instrument on pollutant release and transfer registers.
The E-PRTR has proven to be a pivotal knowledge base on releases from EU industrial activities. It provides easily accessible and high-quality data. It gives the public access to this valuable information, thereby supporting environmental decision-making. However, the E-PRTR can be further improved and made more effective by being aligned with reporting obligations set out in other environmental legislation, as well as by having it report additional contextual information.
CONTENT: this proposed Regulation seeks to enhance public access to environmental information through the establishment of an integrated, coherent Union-wide electronic database, the Industrial Emissions Portal.
In this regard, its main objectives are to:
- update the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) in line with findings of the recently completed impact assessment by creating an Industrial Emissions Portal (Portal);
- re-establish the Portal as a supporting instrument to the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) and related EU environmental law.
Content of the Portal
The Portal should include data on:
- releases of pollutants;
- off-site transfers of waste and of pollutants in wastewater;
- use of water resources, energy and raw materials;
- where available, data on releases of pollutants from diffuse sources.
Design and structure of the Portal
The Commission should make the Portal publicly accessible, presenting the data in both aggregated and non-aggregated forms to enable Portal users to undertake specific searches by inter alia installation or activity. The objective is to ensure maximum ease and usefulness for Portal users in terms of access to relevant reported data.
The Portal should be designed for maximum ease of public access to allow the data, under normal operating conditions, to be continuously and readily accessible on the internet. Its design should take into account the possibility of its future expansion and should include all data reported for previous reporting years, up to at least the previous ten reporting years.
Member States and the Commission should promote public awareness of the Portal and understanding and use of the data contained in it.
Access to information
The proposal suggests that the Commission, assisted by the Agency, should make the data contained in the Portal publicly accessible and free of charge on the internet within 1 month of completion of reporting by Member States. Moreover, each Member State should make available to the public its data, in a continuous manner, free of charge and without restricting access to registered users.