Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concering integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC Directive)

The purpose of this Directive is to minimize pollution from various point sources throughout the European Union. It lays down measures designed to prevent or, where that is not practicable, to reduce emmisions from abovementioned activities in order to achieve a high level of protection of the environment taken as a whole.

Annex I of the Directive listed installations that are required to obtain an authorisation (permit) from the authorities in the EU countries. Unless they have a permit, they are not allowed to operate. The permits must be based on the concept of Best Available Techniques (or BAT) which are featured in Annex IV of the Directive. BAT means environmental improvements and sometimes adapting existing plants to BAT could be very costly. To prevent jeopardising during imposing BAT rules on all existing installations, the Directive grants these installations an eleven year long transition period counting from the day that the Directive entered into force.

IPPC Directive containes basic rules for integrated permits. Intergated permits must take into account the whole environmental performance of the plant, i.e. emissions to air, water and land, generation of waste, use of raw materials, energy efficiency, noise, prevention of accidents, risk management, etc.

Member States shall take the necessary measure to ensure that no new installation is operated without a permit issued in accordance with this Directive. Concerning existing installations Member States shall ensure by means of permits, as appropiate, by reconsidering, where necessary, by updating the conditions, that existing installations operate in accordance with this Directive.

The Directive includes needs that the application for permit must comply (listed in Article 9). The permit shall include emission limit values for pollutants (in particular, those listed in Annex III) and suitable release monitoring requirements, specyfying measurement methodology and frequency, evaluation procedure and an obligation to supply the component authority with data required for checking compliance with the permit. Conditions of the permit shall contain provisions on the minimalization of long-distance or transboundary pollution