IED Principles
Environmental inspections
In Article 23, the IED introduces a requirement for Member States to provide a system of environmental inspections. Member States shall set up a system of environmental inspections and draw up inspection plans accordingly. The plan shall be regularly reviewed and updated. Based on the inspection plans, the competent authority shall regularly draw up programmes for routine environmental inspections, including the frequency of site visits for different types of installations. The IED requires that a site visit shall take place at least every 1 to 3 years, based on a systematic appraisal of the environmental risks of the installations concerned (not exceed one year for installations posing the highest risks and three years for installations posing the lowest risks).
After the inspection, the inspection plan will be published for the public.
With its current framework, the IED is the first piece of EU environmental law providing binding legal requirements for environmental inspections. The non-legally binding Recommendation for Minimum Criteria of Environmental Inspections was used as a reference when developing Article 23 of the IED.