The European Parliament has formally adopted new legislation on the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), based on a deal reached in November.
A compromise was reached by negotiators from the parliament and the Council of the EU (also known as the Council of Ministers) in November in the trilogue process, in which those two institutions, plus the European Commission, try to come to an agreement on new legislative texts.
Today (Tuesday, March 12), MEPs voted in favour of this agreement by 393 votes to 173, with 49 abstentions, following an earlier vote in January in which the parliament’s environment committee backed the agreement.
When the European Commission proposed a revision of the IED in 2022, it included cattle farms above a certain livestock unit (LU) threshold, prompting fears that the largest livestock farms would be subject to a permitting regime in order to operate.
The IED already applies to the largest pig and poultry farms, as well as other industrial installations in non-farming sectors.
However, the agreement reached at trilogue, while extending to more pig and poultry farms, excludes livestock farms – at least for now – from the scope of the IED.
The agreed legislative text requires the commission to assess, by December 31, 2026, whether there is a need to further address the emissions from rearing livestock, including from cattle.
The commission will also assess whether a reciprocity clause is required to ensure producers outside the EU meet requirements similar to EU rules when exporting to the EU.
The IED will now extend to pig farms with more than 350LUs (an LU does not necessarily refer to one animal, e.g., a dairy cow is 1LU, but a younger bovine would be less than 1LU, while a pig would be lower again, and a chicken only a small fraction of 1LU).
Farms raising pigs in an extensive or organic manner, and outside for a significant amount of time in a year, are excluded.
For poultry, the directive applies to farms with laying hens with more than 300LUs, and to farms with broilers with more than 280LUs.
For farms rearing both pigs and poultry, the threshold will be 380LUs.
The revisions to the IED accompany the creation of a new EU Industrial Emissions Portal, where EU citizens will be allowed access data on all permits issued under the IED and alleged local polluting activities.
Companies that do not comply with the IED can face penalties of at least 3% of the operator’s annual turnover for “the most serious infringements”.
The law will also allow citizens to take action for compensation for alleged damage to their health as a result of non-compliance by businesses that are subject to the IED.
The law also has to be adopted by the Council of the EU before formally coming into force. Once it does, member states will have 22 months to become compliant with it.