PURPOSE: to facilitate public access to environmental information by setting up a coherent and integrated electronic database at EU level and to enable the monitoring of industrial pollution in order to contribute to its prevention and reduction.
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) 2024/1244 of the European Parliament and of the Council on reporting of environmental data from industrial installations, establishing an Industrial Emissions Portal and repealing Regulation (EC) No 166/2006.
CONTENT: the Regulation lays down rules on the collection and reporting of environmental data on industrial installations and establishes an Industrial Emissions Portal at Union level in the form of an online database giving public access to such data. This Regulation implements the UNECE Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (the ‘Protocol’).
Objectives
The objectives of this Regulation are to enhance public access to information through the establishment of the Portal, thereby facilitating public participation in environmental decision-making as well as identifying sources of industrial pollution, and to enable industrial pollution to be monitored in order to contribute to its prevention and reduction.
The Portal will:
- provide the public with free-of-charge online access to a more integrated and coherent dataset on key environmental pressures generated by industrial installations;
- encourage better environmental performance;
- track trends;
- demonstrate progress in pollution reduction;
- benchmark installations;
- monitor compliance with relevant international agreements;
- set priorities and evaluate progress achieved through Union and national environmental policies and programmes.
Content of the Portal
The Portal will include: (i) data on the release of pollutants; (ii) data on off-site transfers of waste and of pollutants in waste water; (iii) information on individual installations, reported by the Member States to the Commission; (iv) data on the use of water, energy and relevant raw materials; (v) contextual information; (vi) data on the release of pollutants from diffuse sources.
Reporting by operators to competent authorities
The regulation describes the data that the operators of the industrial installations concerned must communicate each year to their competent authority. These data include (i) data on the release to air, water and land of the pollutants listed in Annex II; (ii) data on off-site transfers of hazardous waste in quantities exceeding two tonnes per year per facility; (iii) data on off-site transfers of any pollutant listed in Annex II contained in waste water destined for treatment; (iv) data on the use of water, energy and relevant raw materials; (v) information allowing the contextualisation of the reported data.
On an annual basis, no later than 11 months from the end of the reporting year, Member States will submit to the Commission, by electronic means, a report including all the data.
Substances listed in Annex II
Dicofol and two types of PFAS - perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its salts and perfluorohexane sulphonic acid (PFHxS) - have been added to the substances listed in Annex II.
By 31 December 2025, the Commission will adopt a delegated act reviewing the list of substances and thresholds in Annex II, including an assessment of the need to reduce the reporting thresholds for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other relevant substances.
Review
The Commission will review the implementation of the Regulation and its Annexes at least every five years from the date of application to ensure that they are aligned with scientific and technical progress. The review process will take due account of international initiatives addressing the release of pollutants from industrial activities and the impact of the release of such pollutants on human health or the environment, Member States’ best practices and progress in that regard, and progress in research and technology.
Where appropriate, the Commission will submit a legislative proposal to the European Parliament and to the Council to amend this Regulation or the Annexes thereto, or both.
ENTRY INTO FORCE:22.5.2024.
APPLICATION: from 1.1.2028.