Council Rubber-Stamps Revised IPPC Directive
EU - The revised IPPC Directive (now known as the Industrial Emissions Directive) was rubber-stamped by the Council of the European Union last week. The revised Directive will now enter into force shortly after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU.Successful lobbying by the NFU during negotiations halted the European Commission’s original proposals to expand the scope of the Directive to include more and smaller pig and poultry farms and its plans to bring in some horticulture businesses. Proposals to extend controls to off-site manure spreading were also halted.
Diane Mitchell, Chief Environment Adviser said, "The NFU remains convinced that the IPPC Directive is ill-suited to the agriculture sector, having been originally formulated to govern large process industry. We also remain totally focused and committed to ensuring that the bureaucracy and cost of this burdensome Directive is minimised."
A last minute deal struck between the European Parliament and the Council also means that instead of extending the scope of the Directive, the Commission is tasked with undertaking a number of reviews including whether poultry thresholds should be differentiated and whether emissions from cattle and manure spreading need to be controlled. The review of poultry thresholds is expected to start early next year and to report by the end of 2011. We will be working with the NFU’s Brussels office to monitor these reviews very closely.
A more detailed brief on the revised Directive controls will be circulated shortly.