Member states lag behind with key industrial pollution law

摘要

Member states are dragging their feet in implementing the EU's 1996 integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) directive and risk missing an October 2007 deadline by which all major industrial and agricultural plants must have environmental permits. The European Commission sounded the alarm on 3 November with a statement that described the directive, which seeks to limit harmful industrial emissions to air, water and land through permits, as a "key piece of EU environmental policy." The Commission warns that delays in issuing the necessary permits "means that the environmental improvements foreseen by the directive will be compromised."