Nine member states warned over emission permits

摘要

Nearly 9,000 companies out of the 52,000 industrial installations concerned in the EU did not have the operating permits required by the Directive on integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC), as of 30 October 2007. The European Commission therefore decided, on 6 May, to send an initial written warning to the nine member states - Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain - that have not met the deadline set for issuing the permits. In spite of a number of reminders, these countries did not meet their obligations to issue permits to all industrial installations in operation before 30 October 1999 or to review and update, where necessary, existing permits by 30 October 2007. For Bulgaria, Estonia and Slovenia, new or updated permits had to be issued to industrial installations already in operation by the date of their accession to the EU.