AUTHORS: Andrew Farmer-Catherine Bowyer-Keith Lawton

Member States were required, under the IPPC Directive, to ensure that all existing installations had been issued with permits compliant with the Directive by the end of October 2007. IEEP, with ENTEC, undertook a study to examine progress in issuing these permits. On the basis of the data from the 27 Member States supplied during 2008, there are estimated to be about 43,264 existing installations covered by the Directive. The total number of permits issued, reconsidered and updated was approximately 44,291 according to the latest information, with 4,618 permits outstanding. There is a wide disparity of progress in the Member States, with some Member States reporting completion of their permitting activity and some with poor progress.

The report also sets out trends in permitting activity for each Member State, drawing on earlier reported data. In May 2008 the European Commission sent nine Member States (Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain) first written warnings (“Letter of Formal Notice”) under Article 226 of the Treaty for failing to issue new or updated permits for over 9,000 industrial installations by the 30 October 2007 deadline.