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Document 52013DC0111
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on progress in implementing Regulation (EC) 166/2006 concerning the establishment of a European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on progress in implementing Regulation (EC) 166/2006 concerning the establishment of a European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on progress in implementing Regulation (EC) 166/2006 concerning the establishment of a European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)
/* COM/2013/0111 final */
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on progress in implementing Regulation (EC) 166/2006 concerning the establishment of a European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) /* COM/2013/0111 final */
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on progress in implementing Regulation
(EC) 166/2006 concerning the establishment of a European Pollutant Release and
Transfer Register (E-PRTR) (Text with EEA relevance) TABLE OF CONTENTS REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on progress in implementing Regulation (EC) 166/2006
concerning the establishment of a European Pollutant Release and Transfer
Register (E-PRTR)....................................................................................................................................... 1........... Background and introduction.......................................................................................... 3 2........... About this assessment..................................................................................................... 3 3........... Status of implementation of the
Regulation at EU level...................................................... 4 3.1........ E-PRTR website............................................................................................................ 4 3.2........ Data flow and quality assurance
at the EU level............................................................... 5 3.3........ Commission guidance..................................................................................................... 5 4........... The status of implementation of
the E-PRTR at Member State level................................. 6 4.1........ General aspects.............................................................................................................. 6 4.2........ Releases to air................................................................................................................ 6 4.3........ Releases and transfers to water....................................................................................... 7 4.4........ Releases to land.............................................................................................................. 7 4.5........ Transfer of waste............................................................................................................ 7 5........... Scope for further improving the
implementation of the E-PRTR........................................ 7 5.1........ Enhancing quality of data and
user confidence.................................................................. 8 5.2........ Improving data use and exchange.................................................................................... 9 5.3........ Further
examination of the legal basis of the E-PRTR and links with other legislation......... 9 6........... Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 9 1. Background
and introduction Pollutant release and transfer registers
provide public access to emissions data concerning releases[1] and off-site transfers[2] of pollutants and waste and
their trends for the most polluting industries. As such, they can assist public
and private decision makers with the setting of priorities for cost-effective
emissions reduction strategies as well as demonstrating progress in reducing
pollution. Such registers can also assist in the monitoring of progress and compliance
with certain national, EU or international obligations or agreements. Regulation (EC) 166/2006 established the European
Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) that implements the UNECE PRTR Protocol to the Aarhus Convention[3] in the
EU. It builds upon and expands the European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER)
that was previously established in 2000. The E-PRTR's main objective is to provide
access to environmental information on the largest industrial facilities. Reporting obligations for emissions are linked specific types of
industrial activity and pollutant thresholds set out in
the Regulation
with a view to address the major sources of industrial pollution, notably
activities covered by Directive 2008/1/EC on Integrated
Pollution Prevention and Control. Reporting covers data
on releases of any of the listed pollutants into the environment as a result of
any human activities, whether deliberate, accidental, routine or non-routine,
at the site of the facility and above the prescribed thresholds. The reported
values are to be based on the best available information from measurements,
calculations or estimations. Article 17 of the E-PRTR Regulation calls on
the Commission to review the Member States' emission reports submitted through
the E-PRTR and, more generally, to provide an assessment of experience gained
during the first three years of operating the register. This Report covers the
first three years of implementation of the E-PRTR. 2. About
this assessment First E-PRTR data for 2009 were made available
in May 2011 on a dedicated website[4],
at which point data covering three years was available and this assessment
could begin. Datasets and tools to ensure the quality of the data were
established with the assistance of the European Environment Agency (EEA).
Information on the implementation of the E-PRTR at a national level and on data
reporting has been collected from Member States with the assistance of a
consultant. Additional information has been gathered for assessing the
performance of the E-PRTR website[5].
The EEA has been associated to this exercise and experts from Member States and stakeholders were consulted on the results and recommendations of the
analysis performed. Furthermore, in order to assess the complementarities and
possible gaps between the E-PRTR and other databases the Commission has also
examined relevant existing European legislation and initiatives. It should be noted that the experience with the
reporting of the 2010 data that was posted on the web in April 2012 confirms the
assessment and conclusions provided in this Report. 3. Status
of implementation of the Regulation at EU level 3.1. E-PRTR
website According to Article 10(1) of the Regulation,
the Commission shall make the register publicly accessible by dissemination free
of charge on the Internet. The E-PRTR website is hosted
and maintained by the EEA, allowing also the further
integration of E-PRTR data with other data sets. It is designed to ensure maximum ease of public access and the information is continuously
and readily accessible. At present, the E-PRTR website provides online
access to data reported by some 29,000 major industrial facilities covering 65
economic activities from the main industrial sectors[6] and provides
information concerning the amounts of pollutant releases to air, water and
land, as well as off-site transfers of waste and of pollutants in wastewater
for 91 key pollutants including heavy metals, pesticides, greenhouse
gases and dioxins. In addition to those core datasets,
which are the main point sources of pollution, the E-PRTR also contains
spatially disaggregated data on releases from diffuse sources into air while data on diffuse emissions to water will be
added soon. Analysis of the E-PRTR website user protocols
and an ad hoc user survey has shown that the E-PRTR website is accessed by a
variety of users, including public services, private enterprises, and the
general public. In general users consider the design of the website suitable
and convenient. They consider that the data, in aggregated and disaggregated
form, are presented in a comprehensive manner and an easy to access format.
These positive findings have been echoed by users outside the EU and several
non-EU countries have shown an interest in using the European system as the
basis for the development of their own national registers. Several users,
however, suggested that there remained scope for further improvement regarding
the user friendliness of the webpages (e.g. improving navigation and search
functions) and more regular maintenance (e.g. to fix broken hyperlinks). Others
suggested streamlining the terminology used. Users and Member States agreed
that contextual information could usefully be added to clarify the data
displayed and their comparability (e.g. method of measurement). Whilst the E-PRTR website is frequently used as
an authoritative source of emissions data accessed by a variety of users, with
an average of 590 visitors per day, there remains a clear potential to increase
the knowledge of its existence and increase the number of users. 3.2. Data
flow and quality assurance at the EU level Pursuant to Article 5 of the Regulation,
facility operators falling within the scope of the Regulation have to annually
report specific data to the competent authority in the Member State in which they are based. Member States must compile and check the
quality of the reported data and transmit them to the
Commission and EEA for dissemination via the E-PRTR
website. The possibility of resubmission of data exists. An automated validation tool was developed to
help Member States with validating E-PRTR data prior to submission and assure compliance with the agreed reporting format. The validation covers
information such as the type of pollutants, the codes for industrial sectors,
geographical coordinates, mandatory
checks for formatting, quantitiative checks of release or waste values
including outliers, checks for conformity to confidentiality. During the first years of implementation of the
Regulation, the quality of the data included in the E-PRTR register was checked
by the EEA through a process generally referred to as the 'informal review': ·
Member States were provided with detailed
feedback concerning the quality and completeness of the data submitted. EEA
checks covered an evaluation of the number of facilities and release reports,
amounts of releases and transfers reported, confidentiality claims, and
accidental releases; ·
The E-PRTR data were subsequently compared with
data reported under different reporting obligations (e.g. National
Emission Ceilings Directive[7],
Emission Trading System[8],
Urban Waste Water Treatment
Directive[9] and the
Waste Statistics Regulation[10])
to identify and address differences and potential inconsistencies. The automated validation tool and the
possibility for data to be resubmitted have proven to be very useful for the Member
States. The informal review was considered equally useful to promote good
practice during the first years of the E-PRTR. It has also proven useful in
helping to identify inconsistencies and possible errors in the reported data as
well as to build good practices in quality assurance by the Member States.
There remains a clear need for the Member States to continue to improve the
upstream quality assurance of reported data. 3.3. Commission
guidance The Commission published in 2006 a guidance
document supporting the implementation of the E-PRTR[11] as required under Article 14
of the Regulation covering matters such as who has to report, what and how,
including an indicative list of sectors and pollutants for which reporting of
data is expected. It also provides helpful information to members of the public
on the E-PRTR itself. All the consulted stakeholders
considered the guidance document to be extremely useful in the reporting
process. A revision of the guidance might help in clarifying still open issues
such as those concerning activity descriptions and further improving the
implementation of the Regulation. 4. The
status of implementation of the E-PRTR at Member State level 4.1. General
aspects All EU Member States, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Serbia have implemented the E-PRTR Regulation. During the period 2007-2009 Member States satisfactorily
reported the requested data. This is reflected in the detailed information
available in the register. This outcome is encouraging also bearing in mind
that setting up new reporting systems typically requires a certain learning
process by all parties involved. Problems related to missing information seemed
to relate to specific interpretation issues. Such difficulties related in
particular to the releases to land including reporting of leachate from waste
landfills. Some implementation difficulties reported were attributed to an
apparent lack of resources at competent authorities to adequately check the
quality of data prior to submission to the Commission. Finally, there remains
an outstanding issue with one Member State concerning the confidentiality of
data under the Regulation. According to Article 5(4) operators subject to
the E-PRTR Regulation are required to provide competent authorities with the
best available data on their pollutant releases and transfers. Furthermore,
according to Article 9(1) and Article 9(2) of the Regulation it lies within the remit of the national competent authorities
to assess the quality of the data and whether the information provided by the
individual facilities is satisfactory with respect to its completeness,
consistency and accuracy. The assessment undertaken indicates that the
E-PRTR data reported had a varying degree of completeness, from consistency for
the releases of major pollutants to air, to less comprehensive reporting of
releases to water and transfer of waste to somewhat poor reporting of releases
to land. Such issues may hinder the potential use of
E-PRTR data both by the general public and by the national and EU authorities, including
the possibility to fulfil other EU or international reporting obligations[12]. 4.2. Releases
to air Considering the increasing need for more
accurate air quality management also at national, regional, and local level,
the scaling of national emission data features amongst one of the largest added
values of the E-PRTR. Reporting of nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and carbon
dioxide releases at the national level is mostly complete and is found to be consistent
when compared to other international reporting obligations or inventories. Reporting of the other pollutants shows, to a
varying extent, some inconsistency with other national inventories. In some
cases national reporting did not include data that would have been expected
according to the indicative lists of sectors and expected pollutants included
in the Guidance Document. This might reflect either deficits in reporting,
inaccuracies in the Guidance Document, or specificities of individual
installations. 4.3. Releases
and transfers to water Reporting of emissions to water is considered
of acceptable quality, albeit that it is less complete than the reporting of
emissions to air. Issues with regard to reporting of emissions to
water that were identified relate to several pollutants, in particular from urban
waste water treatment plants, which show, to a varying extent, discrepancies with
the releases that would have been expected according to the indicative lists of
sectors and expected pollutants included in the Guidance Document. Missing
release reports could be due to the absence of adequate emission factors or analytical
methods for routine measurements of some of the Water Framework Directive
Priority Substances. Reporting of leachate from landfills must also be
clarified. Finally, the limited reporting of chlorpyrifos, hexachlorobutadiene,
isoproturon, ethylene oxide, tetrachloroethylene, tetrachloromethane, and
trichloroethylene is of particular concern. 4.4. Releases
to land In comparison to emissions to air and to water
there are only a limited number of reports of releases to land submitted by a
small number of Member States. Due to the fact that other data sources which
could be used for verification are not publicly available, no clear conclusions
on releases to land can yet be drawn. As already noted in the Communication on
the implementation of the Soil Thematic Strategy[13] the E-PRTR is a potential important tool for tracking
industrial pollutants and improvements in its implementations is encouraged. It is apparent that differences in the interpretation of releases to
land by Member States exist, and these need to be resolved. 4.5. Transfer
of waste Reporting of transfer of hazardous and non-hazardous
waste by facilities under E-PRTR has been compared to data reported for 2008 by
Member States in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 on waste statistics.
The E-PRTR reporting covers only transfers of hazardous and non-hazardous waste
from major individual facilities, whereas the Waste Statistics Regulation covers
entire sectors and concerns generation of selected categories of waste where
data is collected by means of administrative sources, surveys, statistical
estimation procedures or a combination of these means. Consequently, the methodologies
for reporting under the two instruments are different. However, this analysis
has made clear that the thresholds set by the E-PRTR Regulation only allow the
reporting of about 39% of hazardous waste and 17% of non-hazardous waste, with
large differences between different economic sectors. Whilst it is apparent that lowering the minimum
reporting thresholds in E-PRTR could increase the degree of coverage of waste
transfers, the two instruments are complementary and, considered together, presently
provide a sufficiently useful knowledge base. 5. Scope
for further improving the implementation of the E-PRTR Creating an operational E-PRTR is a challenging
undertaking involving a large number of public and private stakeholders. Based
on the present assessment of the first period of implementation, the Commission
considers that the Regulation has been relatively well implemented. Subsequent
improvements could be observed year-on-year as Member States and other stakeholders
have gained experience with its operation. Compared to the situation before the
E-PRTR Regulation was adopted, EU citizens, analysts, policy developers and
decision makers have now more easy access to comprehensive information on the
types and quantities of emissions from the largest industrial activities as
well as from diffuse air emission sources. Whilst the results of the assessment indicate
that a review of the Regulation itself would be premature, a number of
improvements remain possible inter alia by means of enhanced Commission
guidance documents. Special attention will be given to enhancing the
quality and completeness of data reported as well as enhancing data usage. Where
necessary, enforcement actions will be undertaken. 5.1. Enhancing
quality of data and user confidence Further increasing the
reliability and quality of the Register will enable enhanced confidence of the users
and thus increase of usage. The Commission will review
the Guidance Document, in particular with regard to the scope of the Regulation
and its interpretation. More detailed definitions will be given (e.g. regarding
releases to land, and leachate) and clarification will be included on which
elements of the reporting can be held confidential. A number of other specific
issues will be addressed e.g. on sub-activities that need reporting and the
list of pollutants expected from the various activities will be revised. Member States are expected to increase their
efforts to assure the quality of the data provided. The E-PRTR Regulation
places an obligation on operators to assure the quality of data and the
competent authority to assess it. Checks on completeness, consistency and
credibility of the data submitted must be performed more comprehensively prior
to data delivery to the Commission. Member States should not rely on the
informal review performed by the EEA as a substitution for their own quality
checks to later correct reported data. In the ongoing second phase of
implementation of the Regulation the Commission will promote
ownership of quality of data by
operators and Member States. If appropriate this will be enforced by the use of
infringement procedures. As the transfer of ownership of data assurance
to the Member States proceeds, the systematic review at EU level of national
data will be scaled down. The Member States are encouraged to build on the good
national practices that have resulted from the informal review undertaken by
the EEA during the first years of implementation of the Regulation. To help
assure high quality national data the possibility of data re-submission will be
maintained. The Commission will continue to promote the
involvement of relevant expert groups. The Water
Framework Directive Working Group on Chemical Aspects will be encouraged to share
its experience with the E-PRTR expert group in relation to the development of emission factors for compounds released to water. Co-operation
between the E-PRTR expert group and other expert groups, such those on the
implementation of the ambient air quality and the National Emission Ceilings Directive,
will also be encouraged. 5.2. Improving
data use and exchange The E-PRTR website will be improved to enhance user-friendliness
in accordance with the priorities identified: improved functionality, navigation
and search functions, addition of technical information to the data presented, standardisation of terminology and links to
datasets resulting from other reporting obligations. The Commission will exploit
the available opportunities for promoting the use of the E-PRTR for scientific,
technical, and policy analysis as well as for general public awareness purposes. Given the current
proposals or revision of some reporting systems for environmental monitoring,
the use and impact of E-PRTR is likely to further increase. In this context,
the further implementation of Directive 2010/75/EU on Industrial Emissions, Directive
2004/101/EC (ETS) and the ongoing review of the Thematic Strategy on Air
Pollution will offer opportunities to further develop synergies across the
dataflows. In particular, synergies will be sought in order to facilitate the drawing up and review of Best Available Technique
reference documents according to Commission Implementing Decision 2012/119/EU. 5.3. Further examination of the legal basis of the E-PRTR and links with
other legislation The Commission will again examine the need to revise the Regulation to
better serve its goals and the interests of EU stakeholders and will give its
findings in the second three-yearly report on the implementation of the E-PRTR
that will cover the period (2013-2015). This will also
include an evaluation of the differences in scope between the E-PRTR, the IED
and other EU law. 6. Conclusion An integrated and coherent E-PRTR is an
important tool to increase the knowledge base for a cost-efficient and
transparent management of air, water, and land resources. The establishment of the E-PRTR has been an
important step forward in ensuring greater transparency on the types and
quantities of industrial emissions and environmental monitoring. The E-PRTR comprises
a unique dataset covering a wide variety of pollutants, addressing releases and
transfers to all media and based on a bottom-up approach. The assessment of the Commission of the
implementation of the Regulation demonstrates a reasonable success story.
Member States came to terms with the new obligations in an expeditious manner
to the point where data collection, assessment and submission to the Commission
is now completed for most releases in a reliable fashion. However, there remains a need and potential for
further improvements. The actions contained in this Report will help address
some of the most important issues identified during the review and take the
E-PRTR forward in a way that will further improve its usability and encourage
wider use of the important environmental information contained therein. Those
actions will be pursued following an appropriate degree of prioritisation in
order to effectively target those actions of greatest potential benefit. [1] ‘Release’ means any
introduction of pollutants into the environment as a result of any human
activity, whether deliberate or accidental, routine or non-routine, including
spilling, emitting, discharging, injecting, disposing or dumping, or through sewer
systems without final waste-water treatment. [2] ‘Off-site transfer’ means the
movement beyond the boundaries of a facility of waste destined for recovery or
disposal and of pollutants in waste water destined for waste-water treatment. [3] The Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public
Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental
Matters. [4] http://prtr.ec.europa.eu/
[5] "Final report, Three years
of implementation of the E-PRTR, Supporting study for the European
Commission", Umweltbundesamt GmbH Austria, commissioned by Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV). [6] The nine main sectors are: energy; production and processing of metals; mineral
industry; chemical industry; waste and waste water management; paper and wood
production and processing; intensive livestock production and aquaculture;
animal and vegetable products from the food and beverage sector; others. [7] Directive 2001/81/EC [8] Directive 2003/87/EC [9] Directive 91/271/EEC [10] Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 [11] http://prtr.ec.europa.eu/docs/EN_E-PRTR_fin.pdf [12] For example emission inventory data required under the
National Emission Ceilings Directive, the Convention on long range
transboundary transport of atmospheric pollution and the EU Emission Trading
Scheme [13] COM(2012) 46