The plenary of European Parliament supported this Tuesday the revision of the industrial emissions directive, which extends its scope to extraction facilities or mines, to large battery production plants and to macro farms of pigs and poultry.
The MEPsSpecifically, they approved with 396 votes in favour, 102 against and 131 abstentions their red lines with a view to the negotiations that they must begin now with the Member States to agree on the final wording of the legislation.
This legislation establishes standards to prevent and control pollution by emissions from large facilities agro-industrial into the air, water and soil, which can lead to health problems such as asthma, bronchitis and cancer, causing thousands of premature deaths in the EU each year.
Thus, the MEPs agreed to extend the scope of the regulation to industrial extraction facilities or mines and to large battery production plants, although those dedicated to the assembly of battery modules and packs are left out of it.
On the other hand, the European Parliament was in favor of including in the legislation pig farms with more than 2,000 pigs for production or with more than 750 places for pigs, as well as poultry farms with more than 40,000 places for poultry and farms with more than 750 livestock units (LSU).
In this area, the MEPs rejected the proposal of the European Commission to establish a general threshold for all livestock farms of 150 LSU and also underlined the importance of guaranteeing that producers from third countries “comply with similar requirements to Community standards”.
In parallel, the European Parliament also voted in favor of transforming the European Register of Emissions and Transfers of Pollutants in an EU Industrial Emissions Portal in which citizens can access data on community permits and polluting activities in their locality”.