Brussels, 07/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - Following its rapporteur, Johannes Blokland (IND/DEM, Netherlands), the European Parliament reached an agreement with the Council on Wednesday at first reading, on the creation of a European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR), in line with the provisions of the United Nations protocol. The European PRTR, which will be accessible via the Internet as of 2009, will contain data on industrial pollution and provide the public with information on the quality of their environment at local level, and throughout Europe.
This European register will take the form of an inventory of over 91 substances which are released into the air, water and the soil by 65 industrial installations, and will also contain information on the treatment of waste and waste water by these installations.
Its creation will allow the EU to ratify and implement the protocol on registers of the release and transfer of pollutants, which was negotiated under the aegis of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and which it signed in May 2003. The European PRTR replaces the current EPER, the first European Pollutant Emission Register, which was inaugurated in February 2004, and which lists 50 substances which are released into the air and water by 56 industrial installations. In April 2005, the Committee and the European Environment Agency (EEA), which manage it jointly, won a prize for the best new electronic information source for their on-line publication of the EPER, which was awarded to them by the European Information Association.
In a press release, the European Commission welcomes the promptness with which the agreement between the Parliament and the Council was reached. Stavros Dimas, the European Commissioner for the Environment, interprets the success of the EPER (230,000 visitors to the EEA's site) as proof that "the citizens want information about the quality of their environment, so that they can do something about it if they are not satisfied".