Industrial major-accidents: hazard control, dangerous substances

On 19 June 2003, the European Parliament adopted 11 amendments. The Commission can accept 4 amendments. With regard to the amendments accepted by the Commission, these - seek to reinforce the necessity for training for emergencies by introducing an explicit reference to training in the section on emergency planning within the description of the elements of a safety management system in Annex III of the Directive; - propose to add to the items to be communicated to the public a map showing areas that might be affected by the consequences of major accidents. The text proposed by Parliament is identical with the text adopted by the Commission in its Amended Proposal; - propose the creation of 2 new entries for potassium nitrate including their definitions and qualifying quantities. As regards the amendments rejected by the Commission, these concern: - broadening the scope of the mining activities to be covered by the Seveso II Directive by deleting the words "chemical and thermal", thus including mechanical and physical processing of minerals. The Commission continues to be of the opinion that the Seveso II Directive should only apply where dangerous substances are brought onto site and stored there, or where chemical and thermal processing take place; - establishing a requirement for operators to inform the competent authority in the event of a modification of an installation, establishment or storage area; - imposing an obligation on Member States to ensure that different methods used for drawing up safety reports are harmonised; - obliging the Commission to draw up guidelines to be used for assessing the compatibility between existing establishments covered by the Directive and sensitive areas; - obliging the Commission to develop a "scheme of incentives and / or funding for the relocation of establishments". However, on the grounds of subsidiarity considerations, the Commission continues to believe that such a task falls to the Member States. The Commission will monitor compatibility of any such scheme with European competition law; - proposing references to Directive 2000/60/EC (Water Framework Directive) and Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste.�