Control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances

The Council took note of a progress report about ongoing work on the revision of the Seveso directive on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances.

During the discussions among Member States, a broad common understanding has been reached on several elements of the proposal, such as the obligations of the operator, emergency plans and domino effect.

Some aspects of the draft directive must be further discussed:

• scope: the key issue is the alignment of Annex I to the CLP Regulation and the impact on the scope of the Seveso III Directive and the changes related to health hazards and relevant exposure routes;
• derogations, in particular for individual establishments;
• provisions relating to information to the public, including provision for information to be kept permanently online;
• public consultation and participation in decision-making and access to justice where existing Union legislation (such as Directive 2003/4/EC and Directive 2003/35/EC) needs to be taken into account;
• inspections, in particular their content and periodicity; information system and exchanges where information to the public and reporting objectives need to be more clearly differentiated, although the deletion of the reference to the establishment of automated data exchange systems was supported;
• the role of the "forum" and the use of delegated acts;
• the delegation of powers to the Commission. Any delegation of powers will be limited in time and tacitly extended;
• transposition in relation to correlation tables.

The future Polish Presidency plans to continue work on the draft Directive, with two meetings of the Environment working group already scheduled in July 2011. Taking into account the progress made since January 2011 and the calendar of the European Parliament, the possibility of a first reading agreement could be envisaged at this stage.