The new Industrial Emissions Directive

The provisions on the environmental report are mainly defined in Article 2 (Definitions), Article 5 (Environmental Report) and Annex I. In addition, the environmental report must be subject to consultation as provided for in Articles 6 and 7; it must be taken into account during the preparation of the plan or programme (Article 8) and, when the plan or programme is adopted, information must be made available on how this was done (Article 9); and it must be of sufficient quality to meet the requirements of the directive (Article 12).

Article 5 (1) gives the basic requirements for the environmental report. The tasks of the report are to identify, describe and evaluate the likely significant effects on the environment of the plan or programme and its reasonable alternatives. Annex I gives further provisions on which information must be provided relating to these effects. The studying of alternatives is an important element of the assessment and the directive calls for a more comprehensive assessment of them than does the EIA Directive.

Article 5 (1) does not explicitly state who is responsible for preparing the environmental report but it would in many cases be the authority or natural or legal person responsible for preparing the plan or programme.