Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2008)402 - Voluntary participation by organisations in a Community eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2008)402 - Voluntary participation by organisations in a Community eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS). |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2008)402  |
| date | 02-07-2008 |
The Community Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (hereafter EMAS) was originally established in 1993 i and was revised in 2001 by Regulation (EC) No 761/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2001 allowing voluntary participation by organisations in a Community Eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) i, which is currently in force.
The objective of the proposal is to strengthen the scheme by increasing its efficiency and its attractiveness for organisations with the aim of:
- increasing the number of organisations applying the scheme i
- having EMAS recognised as benchmark for environmental management system,
- allowing organisations applying other environmental management systems to upgrade their system to EMAS
- creating an impact beyond the EMAS registered organisations by requiring these organisations to take into account environmental considerations when selecting their suppliers and service providers.
The changes proposed focus on the substance with special attention for the needs of small organisations (SMEs and small public authorities), the institutional set up and the links to other Community policy instruments.
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Article 15 of the EMAS Regulation obliges the Commission to review the EMAS scheme in the light of the experience gained during its operation and propose appropriate amendments to the European Parliament and the Council.
It is in that context that a large-scale evaluation study of the EMAS scheme was carried out in 2005. This evaluation study, together with input from the various stakeholders in the scheme, identified the strengths and weaknesses of the scheme and proposed options to improve the effectiveness of the Regulation.
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Regulation (EC) No 761/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2001 allowing voluntary participation by organisations in a Community Eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS).
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The EMAS revision is part of the package of measures accompanying the Communication on a Sustainable Consumption and Production Action Plan, which is to be adopted in June/July 2008. The Action Plan seeks to substantially change consumers and producers behaviours towards better products, a leaner and cleaner production and a smarter consumption. It will encompass together with the EMAS revision, a revision of the Ecolabel Regulation and a Communication on green Public Procurement.
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The Commission services maintain a continuous dialogue with representatives of the Member States and with the different stakeholders of the EMAS process, in order to follow the practical implementation of the scheme.
The Member States bodies running the EMAS scheme (Competent Bodies, Accreditation Bodies) organised a number of stakeholder meetings and seminars on the future of the scheme and produced recommendations for its revision.
Member States, represented in the Committee established under Article 14 of the EMAS Regulation have been consulted at each stage of the revision process and have provided input into the revision work.[4]
The Commission organised four working group meetings i and a revision workshop i with selected EMAS experts (EMAS verifiers, consultants, Accreditation Bodies and Competent Bodies).
The Commission visited selected Member States to gather their opinion on the revision of the Regulation, at which occasion Member States and other interested parties put forward their ideas for the future of the scheme.
A large-scale evaluation study on EMAS and Eco-label was carried out, on behalf of DG Environment, by a consortium of consultants ('EVER' study). It examined how European organisations perceive the motives, success factors and benefits in relation to EMAS and it provided recommendations for the revision of the EMAS scheme. The findings were presented, discussed and enriched during two workshops held in September 2005, which involved experts, institutions, companies, practitioners and NGO's.
The REMAS project, a three-year project funded by the EU LIFE Environment Fund, and carried out by the UK Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the UK Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment and the Environmental Protection Agency in Ireland, was concluded in May 2006. This project determined, through a detailed statistical analysis, the influence of different types of environmental management systems on site environmental management activities, and their subsequent impact on compliance with legislation and performance against best available techniques.
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The EVER study showed that EMAS is considered as a means to integrate environmental concerns in the organisation's collective value system and improve the corporate image. EMAS is not only perceived as a system to reduce costs from waste disposal, energy consumption etc.; it is also seen as a signal of environmental friendliness.
Environmental improvements, enhanced image and costs reductions are perceived as far the most important benefits from adopting EMAS. Even though almost half of the respondents in the EVER study believed that the monetary costs of EMAS outweighed the benefits, more than two third of the respondents considered EMAS as a success when comparing the financial as well as non-financial benefits and costs.
The REMAS project showed that the adoption of an accredited certified environment management system improves site environmental management activities and that there is evidence that overall environmental management is better under EMAS than under other systems.[7]
On the other hand, the studies showed that EMAS has not reached its full potential in terms of diffusion. The costs of EMAS, the low management commitment and the paperwork/bureaucracy were considered by the respondents in the EVER study as the three most important barriers for adoption of EMAS. Even though EMAS registrations continue to grow steadily (currently over 5,000 organisations are registered in the Community) this still represents only a very small proportion of the number of organisations that could potentially use the scheme.
These conclusions were supported by most consulted stakeholders and were taken into account when the Commission services analysed the options identified for the revision of the scheme, and took a decision on its proposed future direction and on the changes that are needed to the current EMAS Regulation.
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An open consultation was conducted over the Internet from 22/12/2006 to 26/02/2007. The Commission received 214 response(s).
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The Commission carried out an impact assessment listed in the Work Programme and considered three main options:
- continuing with the present approach;
- gradually phasing out of the scheme and
- substantially modifying the Regulation.
The option of continuing with the present approach would provide stability. Changes considered could only be of administrative / institutional nature, in order to just make the current scheme run better. This option would, however, only improve slightly the 'weak points' of the scheme and will not provide a chance for substantial modifications. Its overall impact will remain low, which will undermine its credibility. The visibility of the scheme will not increase and uneven distribution between the Member States is likely to prevail.
In the option of gradually phasing out the scheme financial and personnel resources would be set free. This option would, however, have negative environmental and economic impacts. The Community would loose a voluntary instrument in its policy mix. The mid-term review of the sixth Community Environment Action Programme i assessed the voluntary instruments as having great potential but not being fully developed and called upon the Commission to revise these schemes in order to promote their uptake and reduce administrative burdens in their management.
The option to substantially modify the Regulation would improve the visibility, impact and political profile of the EMAS scheme, which would lead into a significantly wider uptake of the scheme. It would enable the Community to deliver better and more focused environmental benefits, both directly and indirectly. It would also improve the economic situation and reduce the administrative burden of environmental management in participating organisations. Some of the suggested changes require some up-front investment and provision of incentives to EMAS organisations.
Even though it is not possible to predict the exact increase in uptake of the scheme as quantitative data on costs and the impact of the different measures are not available and as a number of options are interrelated or are market-based, the objective is to have, 10 years after the entry into force of this Regulation, a number of registered organisations or sites that equals the number of organisations or sites currently certified under the ISO 14001:2004 standard on environmental management systems (35.000). As an intermediate objective, 5 years after the entry into force of this Regulation, the aim is to reach a number of EMAS registered sites that equals the average of the three Member States with, in 2007, the highest number of registered sites per million of inhabitants, which results in an envisaged total of 23.000 EMAS registered sites.[9]
Contents
- LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL
- BUDGETARY IMPLICATION
- 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal
- 1.2. General context
- 1.3. Existing provisions in the area of the proposal
- 1.4. Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union
- 2. CONSULTATION OF INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENT
- 2.1. Consultation of interested parties
- Consultation methods, main sectors targeted and general profile of respondents
- Summary of responses and how they have been taken into account
- 2.2. Impact assessment
- 3.1. Summary of the proposed action
- 3.2. Legal basis
- 3.3. Subsidiarity and proportionality
- 3.4. Choice of instruments
- 5. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
- 5.1. Simplification
- 5.2. Repeal of existing legislation
- 5.3. Review/revision/sunset clause
- 5.4. European Economic Area
- 5.5. Detailed explanation of the proposal
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The objective is to revise the EMAS scheme, as required by Article 15 of the EMAS Regulation, in order to best encourage continuous improvement in the environmental performance of all organisations.
To achieve this objective, the revision of the EMAS Regulation aims at substantially enhancing the political profile and hence the number of organisations applying the scheme. The fundamental changes proposed will focus on the substance with special attention for the needs of small organisations (SMEs and small public authorities), the institutional set up and the links to other policy instruments in particular Green Public Procurement.
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The Regulation is motivated by environmental policy considerations as laid down in Article 175 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which was already the legal basis of Regulation (EC) 761/2001.
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The adoption of the scheme at Community level is necessary to create a single credible scheme and avoid the establishment of different national schemes. This Proposal does not alter the current situation with regard to the internal market and continues to respect the principles of subsidiarity by leaving the technical implementation of the Regulation to the Member States through the functioning of the Competent Bodies and Accreditation Bodies. The effectiveness of the scheme in contributing to better environmental performance of organisations is thus ensured whilst the measures that can be adequately performed at national level are left to the Member States.
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The proposed instrument is a regulation as this is the only adequate means for guaranteeing a sufficient degree of harmonisation of rules and procedures for registration, verification and accreditation, which constitute the essential elements of the scheme.
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The Community financial contribution is limited in overall terms. Annual Financial resources requested from the Community budget are estimated at around 1.5 M€ per year, covering in particular development of reference documents for specific sectors, peer reviews of Accreditation Bodies and Competent Bodies and information and Communication. Until 2013, these costs will be covered by the LIFE + Financial Instrument i.
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The proposal provides for simplification of legislation by re-writing the text of the current regulation and integrating useful elements of different guidelines.
The proposal provides for simplification of administrative procedures for organisations by, among others:
- stimulating further reduction of the regulatory and administrative burden by introducing elements that create synergies with, and allow for, closer operational links between EMAS and other EU legislation and instruments, thus reducing the administrative burden for EMAS registered organisations by way of regulatory flexibility, including both regulatory relief (substitution of legal requirements without changes in environmental legislation as such) or deregulation (changes in the legislation itself).
- introducing the registration of clusters of organisations and the possibility for corporate registration in addition to the existing registration for individual organisations, which will have a direct cost-saving effect and make participation more attractive.
- inviting Member States to clarify the links and complementarities with other environment management schemes so that registration or participation in national environment management schemes can be taken into account when an organisation applies for registration under EMAS and vice versa.
Thus, the proposal meets the objectives of the Better Regulation initiative, developed in the context of the renewed Lisbon strategy aiming at simplifying and improving existing regulation, to better design new regulation and to reinforce the respect and the effectiveness of the rules while reducing administrative burdens.515
The proposal is included in the Commission's Legislative and Work Programme under the reference 2006/ENV/053 and it delivers the commitment undertaken in the Commission’s Rolling Programme i
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The adoption of the proposal will lead to the repeal of existing legislation.
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The proposal includes a review clause.
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The proposed act concerns an EEA matter and should therefore extend to the European Economic Area.
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The operational scheme of EMAS and the general requirements for participation remain essentially the same as under the current Regulation: organisations can participate in EMAS on condition that they develop an environmental policy, carry out an environmental review, establish an environmental management system, carry out an internal environmental audit and develop an environmental statement. Once this environmental statement is verified and validated by an independent environmental verifier, the organisation can apply for registration at a Competent Body. In order to maintain registration, the organisation has to report on a regular basis on its environmental performance improvement and provide evidence that it complies with applicable legal requirements relating to the environment.
The main modifications aim at:
- ensuring that EMAS is a high quality environmental management scheme that guarantees to external stakeholders and national enforcement authorities that EMAS organisations comply with all relevant environmental legislation and continuously improve their environmental performances and
- raising the attractiveness of the scheme for participating organisations, particularly for small organisations (SMEs and small public authorities), by reducing the administrative burden for participating organisations and by increasing the visibility of participation in EMAS.
These modifications are:
- Environmental Management System. EMAS remains to be based on the environmental management system as embodied in the ISO 14001 standard, complemented by the following elements:
- Reinforced compliance mechanism. The EMAS organisation has to demonstrate its compliance with applicable environmental legislation before the first registration. Dialogue between the organisation and the national enforcement authorities is encouraged. The role of verifiers in ensuring that the organisation complies is reinforced. The definition of non-compliance is clarified and the procedures by the competent bodies for registration and de-registration due to non-compliance are harmonised.
- Reinforced environmental reporting. Reporting on environmental performance using the core performance indicators is mandatory for the EMAS registered organisation. These indicators are defined for the following environmental areas: energy efficiency, material and resource efficiency, waste, emissions, and biodiversity/land use.
- Guidance on best practice in environmental management. In order to support a more harmonised implementation of best practice in environmental management, the Commission initiates the process of development of reference documents. These documents cover specific sectors and focus on direct environmental aspects of production operations as well as indirect aspects, e.g. product design, the environmental impact of downstream and upstream activities.The use of reference documents is voluntary but the EMAS organisations are encouraged to use them for setting up their environmental management system and for defining their environmental targets. The verifiers are required to refer to the documents as to the benchmark for effective management system.
- The rules and procedures for accreditation and verification are harmonised and defined with aim to address the uneven implementation in individual Member States that undermines the credibility of the scheme. Regulation (EC) No xxxx/2008 of the European parliament and of the Council of [……………. date] setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing of products organises accreditation at the national and European levels. It insists on the public authority nature in order for it to be the last level of public authority control, and sets the framework for the recognition of the existing organisation European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) so as to ensure the proper functioning of a rigorous peer evaluation system. This regulation sets the over all framework that completes existing legislation in relation to accreditation. This proposal for a revised EMAS regulation complements these rules in so far as necessary, while taking into account the specificities of the voluntary EMAS scheme and, where appropriate, setting more specific rules.
- Geographical scope. Participation of organisations from outside of the Community is allowed. An outside-Community organisation can register in one of the Member States and its environmental management system has to be verified and validated by a verifier accredited in the Member State where the organisation will apply for registration.
- Measures reducing the administrative burden and creating incentives :
- Simplification of the procedure for cluster registration.
- Reduction of registration fees for small organisations (SMEs and small public authorities).[12]
- The national authorities in Member States are obliged to identify areas where they can reduce administrative burden of EMAS registered organisations related to environmental regulation, e.g. less frequent renewal of environmental permit, etc. A process of regular consultations in Member States between EMAS Competent Bodies and regulatory authorities will be set-up. The Commission organises exchange of information on this issue.
- The national authorities have to consider and, where appropriate and without prejudice to the rules on state aid of the Treaty, introduce incentives from which EMAS registered organisations can benefit, such as access to funding or tax incentives in the framework of schemes supporting environmental performance of industry.
- Rules for the use of EMAS logo are simplified and existing restrictions are removed.
- Promotion activities for EMAS including the EMAS award and information campaigns at Community and national level.