The EU27 Ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) held further discussions on Friday 10 March on a new Swedish Presidency compromise, which should enable the Environment Council to adopt its position (a general approach) on Thursday 16 March on the proposed revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU (IED) to strengthen its scope and amend Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste accordingly.
Some delegations still have reservations, but the Swedish Presidency considers that its text is balanced and now sufficiently stable. It will therefore be submitted to the Member States’ Environment Ministers for approval as it stands.
The latest compromise tends to address some of the concerns expressed 2 days earlier in Coreper (see EUROPE 13137/2).
Essentially, the latest version of the text strengthens the alignment of the future directive with the REACH regulation on the evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemical substances. With regard to the extractive industries, it excludes gypsum from the scope. The compromise also waters down Article 79 on penalties for infringement of national provisions to give Member States even more flexibility.
As for the livestock sector - the most problematic one - with the very long transition periods and the exclusion of extensive livestock farming having been secured, the livestock unit thresholds from which the future directive would apply in stages have been raised slightly. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)