The European Commission has appointed consultants to deal with review commitments in Article 73 of the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), which includes a review of poultry thresholds.
Successful lobbying by the NFU during negotiations on the IED (the former IPPC Directive) halted the Commission’s original proposals to expand the scope of the Directive to include more and smaller pig & poultry farms and its plans to bring in some protected edible horticulture businesses.
However, a last minute deal struck between the European Parliament and the Council meant that instead of extending the scope of the Directive, the Commission was tasked with undertaking a number of reviews (now set out in Article 73 of the IED).
The reviews that the consultants will look at include whether there is a the need to control emissions from-:
- The combustion of fuels in installations with a total rated thermal input below 50 MW; and
- The intensive rearing of cattle.
They will also look at:-
- Differentiated capacity thresholds for the rearing of different poultry species, including the specific case of quail; and
- Capacity thresholds for the simultaneous rearing of different type of animals within the same installation.
The consultants are expected to report back to the Commission in 2012.
The NFU will be following the progress of this work very closely with the help of our office in Brussels. We remain convinced that this Directive is ill-suited to the agriculture sector, having been originally formulated to govern large process industry. We also remain totally focused and committed to ensuring that the bureaucracy and cost of this burdensome Directive is minimised.
- David Anderson - 11/11/2011
Why do large free range units have to be included in this legislation? The hens are allowed to range over a large area therefore they must be extensive and should not be included in ippc.