Environment: Eco-management and audit scheme EMAS, voluntary participation by organisations (amend. regul. 1836/93/EEC)
1998/0303(COD)
The Commission can accept 2 amendments in full and 7 in part or principle. The remaining amendments proposed by the Parliament cannot be accepted.
The amendments accepted in full or in part relate to:
- the training of verifiers. This is part of ensuring the credibility of EMAS;
- incentives for organisations to participate in the EMAS;
- the application of reasonable registration fees.
In relation to the amendments accepted in principle, these concern in particular:
- providing support in the field of EMAS to candidate countries for accession in the EU;
- the exchange of data between local competent bodies;
- administrative simplification for businesses;
- the insertion of the full text of Section 4 of EN ISO 14001:1996);
- information on continuing improvement in the environmental statement (terminology to be used in a formal reference when reporting on environmental improvements;
- the use of environmental indicators by organisations;
- the guarantee of access to the environmental statement for all interested parties.
The amendments rejected by the Commission concern:
- the definition of the organisation;
- the scope of reporting in the environmental statement;
- compliance with environmental legislation;
- the frequency of validation of the environmental statement;
- verification by 'visiting' verifiers;
- the report to the European Parliament;
- preferential access to public facilities;
- channels for informing on EMAS;
- the protocol of intent on penalties;
- comitology;
- the involvement of workers;
- the printed form of the environmental statement;
- the availability of environmental statement;
- competence criteria for environmental verifiers;
- verification frequency;
- criteria for assessing significance of impact;
- validation frequency of the environmental statement;
- the introduction of environmental policy.�