Brussels, 24/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The third meeting was the good one. On Tuesday evening 23 June, negotiators from the Council, Parliament and European Commission reached a provisional agreement on the draft directive of December 2013 to limit the emissions of certain pollutants from medium-sized power stations (see EUROPE 11333).
143,000 energy plants with thermal input rating between 1 to 50 MW, such as electricity generators or heating and cooling systems for domestic and industrial use, will be affected because they represent a major source of pollution and until now have escaped any regulation. It is on the basis of an agreement being worked out on a differentiated system depending on the size of the combustion plants and the limits to the derogations requested by the member states that this trialogue reached its position. The result still has to be confirmed by the ambassadors to the EU member states (Coreper) and the European Parliament.
Rapporteur Andrzej Grzyb (EPP, Poland) stated: “Finally, I think that we have found a balanced approach between the environmental impact of the directive on the one hand and reducing the burden on operators, mostly SMEs, on the other”.
As originally proposed by the European Commission, the informal agreement stipulates that maximum emission values, listed in annexes, of sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and dust from existing combustion plants with a thermal input above 5MW, would come into force from 2025. The smallest plants, with a thermal input from 1 to 5 MW, which are usually operated by SMEs, will have to comply with emission limit values from 2030. This grace period particularly applies to urban central heating systems, combustion plants in isolated and remote areas, as well as power stations that use biomass as its main fuel.
In areas that infringe European air quality standards, the national authorities will be obliged to assess whether stricter limits are necessary.
The Commission will now have to look at opportunities for drawing up energy efficiency norms for medium-sized combustion stations on the basis of the best techniques available, before 2020. This demand was made by the European Parliament. The directive's scope will be extended to include carbon monoxide monitoring rules.
Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA, France) carried out the negotiations on behalf of the European Parliament and was delighted, stating: “Parliament opposed the reduction of emission value limits for new plants and limited the number of derogations introduced by the Council for existing stations”. According to this MEP, the agreement on the “pure air in Europe” directive is of crucial importance for “legislation on national emission ceilings (NEC directive) because emissions from medium-sized combustion plants account for 20% of the reduction in the air pollution the NEC directive up to 2020 seeks to achieve” (see EUROPE 11335). (Aminata Niang)