EU Law on Industrial Emissions

Appeal: An appeal is a petition for a review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to an appropriate superior court empowered to overturn the lower court's decision on the ground that it was based on an erroneous application of law.

BAT: Best Available Techniques, state-of-the-art techniques that can be used to achieve a high level of environmental protection as a whole. They can be implemented in the relevant sector under economically and technically viable conditions, taking into account their costs and benefits. [the most effective and advanced stage in the development of activities and their methods of operation which indicates the practical suitability of particular techniques for providing the basis for emission limit values and other permit conditions designed to prevent and, where that is not practicable, to reduce emissions and the impact on the environment as a whole.

BAT conclusions: A document containing the parts of a BAT reference document laying down the conclusions on best available techniques, their description, information to assess their applicability, the emission levels associated with the best available techniques, associated monitoring, associated consumption levels and, where appropriate, relevant site remediation measures.

BREF, BAT reference document: Is a document, resulting from the exchange of information organised pursuant to Article 13 IED, drawn up for defined activities and describing, in particular, applied techniques, present emissions and consumption levels, techniques considered for the determination of best available techniques as well as BAT conclusions and any emerging techniques, giving special consideration to the criteria listed in Annex III IED;

Court of Justice: The Court of Justice, which is the highest court in the European Union in matters of European Union law, was set up in 1952 under the ECSC Treaty and is based in Luxembourg. It consists of one judge per EU country and eight advocates-general, who publicly and impartially present reasoned opinions on the cases. It has the power to settle legal disputes between EU Member States, EU institutions, businesses and individuals. The cases may be heard in plenary sessions or chambers of three or five judges.

Direct effect: The principle of direct effect ensures the application and effectiveness of European law in Member states by enabling individuals to immediately invoke certain European provision before a national or European court. The so-called vertical direct effect is of consequence in relations between the state and individuals, whereas the horizontal direct effect is of consequence in relations between individuals.

Directive: A Directive is a legal instrument adopted by the European Union according to a specific procedure. It is binding, as to the result to be achieved, on each Member State to which it is addressed, but leaves to the national authorities the choice of form and methods (Article 288 TFEU). A Directive´s function, harmonisation of law within the EU, can be achieved for example by Directive 2008/95/EC.

ELV, emission limit value: Is the mass, expressed in terms of certain specific parameters, concentration and/or level of an emission, which may not be exceeded during one or more periods of time.

Environmental inspection: All actions, including site visits, monitoring of emissions and checks of internal reports and follow-up documents, verification of self-monitoring, checking of the techniques used and adequacy of the environment management of the installation, undertaken by or on behalf of the competent authority to check and promote compliance of installations with their permit conditions and, where necessary, to monitor their environmental impact.

EQS, Environmental Quality Standards: The set of requirements which must be fulfilled at a given time by a given environment or particular part thereof, as set out in Union law;

General Court: The General Court, consisting of at least one judge from each Member State, deals with cases brought forward by private individuals, companies and some organisations, as well as cases related to competition law in order to help the Court of Justice cope with the large number of cases brought before it and to offer citizens better legal protection.

GHG, Greenhouse Gas: – A gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation, e.g. carbon dioxide.

Greenhouse effect: A process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface and the lower atmosphere, it results in an elevation of the average surface temperature above what it would be in the absence of the gases.

IED, Industrial Emissions Directive: The Industrial Emissions Directive (Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control)) is a European Union directive which commits European Union member states to control and reduce the impact of industrial emissions on the environment.

IEF - Information Exchange Forum/The IED Art. 13 Forum: The formal expert group established by Commission Decision (2011/C 146/03) based on the IED to generally oversee the information exchange process on BAT. The Forum is composed of representatives from Member States, industry and environmental non-governmental organisations. The Forum has a crucial role delivering opinion on the rolling work programme for the elaboration and review of BREFs and on the proposed content of the final draft BREFs. This last opinion has to be made publicly available by the Commission and has to be taken into account for the purposes of adopting decisions on the BAT conclusions through the IED Article 75 Committee.

Infringement Procedure: Under the Article 258 TFEU the European Commission is responsible for ensuring that EU law is correctly applied. Consequently, where a Member State fails to comply with EU law, the Commission has powers of its own (action for non-compliance) to try to bring the infringement to an end and, where necessary, may refer the case to the European Court of Justice.

IPPC Directive: Directive 2008/1/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2008 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control. It replaces the Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 on the same subject matter; both are commonly referred to as IPPC Directive. From 2005-2007, the effect of the directive was assessed. In 2010, a revised wording was published, integrated with 6 other European directives regulating large industrial sites, into the Industrial Emissions Directive, short IED.

Permit: A written authorisation to operate all or part of an installation or combustion plant, waste incineration plant or waste co-incineration plant;

Preliminary ruling: Under Article 267 TFEU, the Court of Justice of the European Union has jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings concerning the interpretation of the Treaties and the validity and interpretation of acts of the institutions, bodies, offices or agencies of the Union. Where such a question is raised before any court or tribunal of a Member State, that court or tribunal may (shall in cases pending before a court or tribunal of a Member State against whose decisions there is no judicial remedy under national law), request the Court to give a ruling thereon.

Proceedings for annulment: By an action for annulment under Article 263 TFEU, the applicant seeks the annulment of a measure (regulation, directive or decision) adopted by an institution. The Court of Justice has exclusive jurisdiction over actions brought by a Member State against the European Parliament and/or against the Council (apart from Council measures in respect of State aid, dumping and implementing powers) or brought by one Community institution against another.

Proceedings for failure to act: Proceedings for failure to act are legal proceedings brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union which enable the Court to control the inaction of a European Union institution, body, office or agency. If the inaction is illegal under European law, the Court shall confirm the failure to act and the institution, body, office or agency must take appropriate measures.

Regulation: A Regulation is a legal instrument adopted by the European Union according to a specific procedure. In contrast to a Directive, a Regulation achieves its intended purpose in the Member States as a self-executing provision without the need for any implementing measures at national level (Art. 288 TFEU).

The European IPPC Bureau (EIPPCB): The European IPPC Bureau exists to catalyse an exchange of information between Member States and the industries concerned on Best Available Techniques (BAT), as required by Article 13(1) of the Industrial Emissions Directive, IED (2010/75/EU). The European IPPC Bureau was established in Seville (Spain) in 1997 within the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), in the context of the implementation of the IPPC Directive. The European IPPC Bureau was set up to organise an exchange of information between Member States and the industries concerned, on the dynamic concept of best available techniques (BAT) associated monitoring and developments in them as required by Article 17(2) of the IPPC Directive (2008/1/EC). The objective of the information exchange exercise is to assist the efficient implementation of the Directive across the European Union.

Treaties*: The creation of the first “Community”, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), was the starting point for over 50 years of European treaty-making. Between 1951 (ECSC Treaty) and 2001(Treaty of Nice), no fewer than 16 treaties were signed. This series of treaties did far more than simply amend the original text: new treaties were born and gradually extended the family.

TWG, Technical Working Group: For the drawing up or reviewing of a BREF document, a TWG is set up (or reactivated) by the Commission. Each TWG consists of technical experts representing Member States, industries, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) promoting environmental protection and the Commission. TWG members are nominated to participate in the information exchange primarily based on their technical, economic, environmental or regulatory expertise (especially in permitting or inspecting industrial installations) as well as on their ability to bring into the information exchange process the BREF end-user perspective.