Successful EP/Council conciliation over Seveso II Directive

Brussels, 10/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - Following the conciliation procedure, the European Parliament and the Council struck agreement on Wednesday evening on the first revision of the Seveso II Directive "to prevent major accident hazards", drawing lessons from recent disasters like the cyanide pollution of the Danube in 2000 (Baia Mare, Romania). Following 11 amendments voted in by the European Parliament in second reading on 19 June 2003, conciliation focussed on the directive's scope and information to be supplied to the public by the authorities. Compared with the Council's common position, the common text agreed in conciliation covers a wider range of industries, including all mining, and ensures better public information about dangerous industrial sites. The details:

• Scope. The directive will cover operational tailings disposal facilities containing dangerous substances, when used in connection with the chemical and thermal processing of minerals and also mechanical processes. A new recital will make clear that Seveso II and the new directive on the management of minimising waste will be complementary. Major potassium nitrate processing plants have been included in the directive.
• Public information. To meet the European Parliament's demand for the establishment of a harmonised technical database, including risk data and risk scenarios to assess the compatibility of such sites with adjacent areas, the European Parliament and Council agreed to a compromise suggested by the Commission whereby the Commission, in close cooperation with Member States, will draw up a technical database within three years of the adoption of the Directive. Risk maps, images or equivalent descriptions will be included in the safety reports to be provided by operators of dangerous plants and installations for publication.

The European Parliament's desire for a clause to be incorporated on funding for the removal of dangerous sites ran into firm opposition from the Council and was rejected.

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom welcomed the agreement (which still has to be confirmed by the EP and the Council before the directive can be formally adopted. In a press release she said: "The adoption of the Directive will at the same time represent the completion of the first of three key actions announced by the Commission in the aftermath of the Baia Mare mining accident of 2000. Furthermore, it contains measures in response to the Enschede (involving explosive and pyrotechnic substances, Ed) and Toulouse (at the AZF factory, Ed) accidents."