WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3063/97 by Amedeo AMADEO to the Commission. Emissions of organic compounds
16. 4. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 117/145 As required by the EC Treaty the Commission will ensure that the provisions of this Regulation are properly transposed into the national law of each Member State. The Commission would also like to draw the Honourable Member’s attention to the legal basis for the proposal (Article 130 s of the EC Treaty) which enables the Member States to adopt enhanced protective measures that are more stringent than those provided for in the Directive. When the proposal for a Directive referred to above was being written the Commission, which was well aware of the relatively technical nature of its wording, had already taken steps to simplify this in order to make it easier to read and understand. (98/C 117/194) WRITTEN QUESTION E-3063/97 by Amedeo Amadeo (NI) to the Commission (2 October 1997) Subject: Emissions of organic compounds The Commission has submitted a proposal for a Council directive on limitation of emissions of volatile organic compounds due to the use of organic solvents in certain industrial activities (COM(96) 538 final › 96/0276 SYN) (1). At European Union level, measures have already been introduced to reduce emissions of organic compounds such as the Auto-Oil programme and other legislative measures relating to emissions caused by traffic and the petrol distribution system. Emissions from stationary sources of solvents therefore need to be reduced, although specific conditions need to be laid down for the three main sub-sectors of application, given the considerable number of such sources. Will the Commission introduce a methodology for securing equal reductions in each sector, given the large number of industrial sectors and undertakings involved, and set balanced reduction targets for each sector in terms of cost-effectiveness? (1) OJ C 99, 26. 3. 1997, p. 32. Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission (5 November 1997) When preparing its proposal for a directive limiting emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) arising from the use of organic solvents in certain industrial activities, the Commission took the greatest of care in defining the requirements concerning VOC emissions by the various sectors of industry falling within its scope. Various sector-specific analyses have enabled the potential for reducing VOC emissions to be pinpointed for each of the sectors on the basis of the best available technologies. The emission limits and the solvent- consumption thresholds on the basis of which a facility is covered by the directive took the greatest account of these technical/economic factors at their definition stage. The Commission has, in particular, taken steps to ensure that there is a certain consistency among the various sectors in terms of the average cost per tonne of VOC and of the marginal costs. Conversely the Commission has not gone ahead with developing a uniform methodology for each sector concerned in cost/benefit terms. An exercise of this type would, indeed, have been extremely complex to conclude successfully, bearing in mind the large number and diversity of the branches of industry and companies involved. In addition, imposing a standards set of reduction charges throughout industry would potentially penalise small and medium-sized businesses