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Stärkung des freiwilligen betrieblichen Umweltschutzes (Englisch)

Inhaltsbereich

Strengthening voluntary environmental protection at the company level

Agreement on revised EMAS Regulation

On 2 April 2009, the European Parliament adopted the revised Regulation allowing voluntary participation by organisations in a Community eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) at first reading. The new Regulation focuses on reporting (introduction of core indicators) and on promoting the participation of small and medium-sized organisations. With respect to the initially controversial licensing procedure for environmental verifiers, individual Member States still have the choice between using an accreditation or a special professional authorisation procedure.

The outcome of the first reading in the European Parliament is in line with the outcome of the deliberations held by Member States, the EU Commission and the European Parliament, which makes it very likely that the Regulation will be adopted by the Council and enter into force before the end of the year. Member States have to adapt procedures, if necessary, within 12 months after the entry into force. A transition rule for the audit by an environmental verifier has been established: when an organisation undergoes its next audit, the environmental verifier will check if it complies with the new requirements of the Regulation. If the next audit is scheduled less than six months after the Regulation enters into force, the deadline for the next audit can be extended by six months in agreement with the verifier and the Competent Body.

Environmental statement/indicators

According to the outcome of the first reading in the European Parliament, the "environmental statement" and the "updated environmental statement" will be kept. The introduction of core indicators for energy efficiency, material efficiency, water, waste, land consumption and emissions will result in more specific requirements for how to cover significant direct environmental impacts. Indicators will become more specific also with respect to dangerous waste, greenhouse gases, of which at least the emissions of CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs and SF6 have to be stated, and emissions into the atmosphere, of which at least SO2, NOX and PM have to be stated. In general, it is possible to deviate from the list of core indicators provided a justification is given. If an organisation believes that one or several core indicators are not essential to its direct environmental aspects, the organisation is not obligated to provide information with respect to these core indicators. The same applies to the normally required statement of the gross value added in million euros or alternatively of the total annual output in tonnes. Additionally, small and medium-sized companies can opt for declaring the annual total turnover or alternatively the number of employees instead of the gross value added or the annual output. The non-manufacturing sector (administration, service industry) can indicate the size of the organisation expressed as the number of employees. Naturally, additional indicators, for example company-specific indicators, can still be used. The environmental statement is conceived in such a way that it is compatible with regulatory requirements. This might be of relevance with a view to establishing proof of legal compliance and hence among other things to the streamlining of administrative procedures.

Small and medium-sized companies/validation cycles

As a basic rule, organisations will continue to undergo an annual audit by an environmental verifier. The audit has to be updated by the organisation and validated by the verifier. Every three years, the verifier has to validate a consolidated version of the environmental statement. Less stringent rules apply to small organisations within the meaning of the EMAS Regulation. These are

small and medium-sized organisations within the meaning of EU Commission recommendation 2003/361/EC, that is organisations with less than 250 employees,
public administration offices for less than 10 000 inhabitants or other administrations that employ less than 250 persons (including other natural or legal entities that perform public duties or deliver public services under public law).

Upon request by a small organisation, a Competent Body can extend for that organisation the frequency with which to present a validated complete environmental statement to four years and the frequency with which to present a validated update of the environmental statement to two years. As before, this option is only valid provided that there have been no substantial changes in the organisation and that there are no significant environmental risks or local environmental problems. The verifier has to confirm that these conditions are met. Compared with the current situation this leads to improvements for organisations with 50 to 250 employees which were subject to a mandatory annual validation under the EMAS Regulation of 2001. However, a non validated update of the environmental statement has to be sent to the Competent Body on a yearly basis in any case.

Another improvement in particular for small and medium-sized companies is the option of formal recognition or partial recognition of certified eco-management schemes or approaches. Member States can apply for such a recognition to the EU Commission. The decision will be taken in the Regulatory Committee. In that case, organisations seeking to participate in EMAS are not required to implement those elements of EMAS that have been recognised as equivalent to the provisions of the new EMAS Regulation.

Use of the EMAS logo

Contrary to the Commission's proposal and the position of Germany and other Member States, the use of the logo has not been extended to products and their packaging. The European Parliament justified this decision by referring to the risk of confusion with the Eco-label, an argument that is not entirely convincing. The design of the logo will be kept. For clarity's sake only logos marked "audited eco-management" will be used in the future.

EMAS worldwide

Organisations outside the EU will also be able to participate in the European eco-management scheme in the future. Organisations located outside the Community have to comply with the environmental provisions that apply to them but also with those applicable to similar organisations in the Member States in which they intend to submit an application. However, they can only be registered in a Member State where the environmental verifier they use is licensed. The Member States are free to decide whether they allow registration of organisations located outside the EU in their country or not. The EU Commission will prepare a user's guide on the registration of non European sites.

Obligations of Member States and the EU Commission

Member States are required to promote participation in EMAS in particular by small and medium-sized companies and to support these companies. Among other measures, the EU Commission will create an electronic data base of environmental statements, a data base of best practices in the field of EMAS, which would also include effective instruments for promoting EMAS and examples for the technical support of organisations, and a list of Community resources for funding of EMAS implementation and related projects and activities. The EU Commission has to consider how EMAS may be taken into account in the development of new legal provisions and the revision of existing ones, in particular in the form of regulatory support and better law-making. As an additional support, the EU Commission will develop sectoral reference documents over the next years.