SMEs’ green rules back to square one

Date: 10/07/1997

By Michael Mann

EU LAWMAKERS are having to rethink their approach to controlling pollution caused by small companies currently exempted from the terms of European legislation.

Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard has abandoned her attempts to draft a version of the all-embracing Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive designed specifically to cover small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

“Bodies representing SMEs felt the European Commission's proposal might have given us a solution which was worse than the problem. Even governments were not sure about the utility of the idea,” said a spokesman for SME lobby UEAPME.

Officials within the Commission's Directorate-General for the environment (DGXI) are now searching for a new solution to the problem.

The IPPC Directive, finally agreed in 1996 after three years' debate, represented a major shift in pollution control, looking at the overall impact of individual factories on the whole environment rather than just on one medium - water, soil or air.

But during meetings with the SME sector, it became clear that drawing up similar standard rules to cover the needs of highly diverse small businesses would be too complex. Aside from fears of an excessive burden of red tape, they were concerned about the preferred use of 'Best Available Technology' (BAT) to limit the impact of industrial emissions because of potential purchase costs.

After failing to agree an approach covering all sources of pollution, the Commission is now considering its options. “We realised the IPPC model would not necessarily give the benefits commensurate with the effort involved,” said a source.

One idea would be to extend individual pieces of legislation separately for water, soil and air pollution.

While small businesses are pleased that the Commission has shelved its IPPC proposal, they are less happy that this also means the sidelining of an initiative included in the measures to streamline and simplify rules which already have an impact on the SME sector.

“This was a very useful initiative to help SMEs respect the environment. It should even have been more radical. More simplification at national level is indispensable if we want to help craft businesses and SMEs to grow or multiply more easily and contribute to employment creation,” said UEAPME's Guido Lena.