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THE EU HAS BROUGHT in new rules governing the provision of information to citizens about the risks posed by industrial plants in their area.
Under the amended Seveso Directive, member states must draw up emergency plans for the areas surrounding industrial installations which work with high quantities of dangerous substances.
Public information about the related risks must be available electronically, while the organisations covered by the legislation will have to provide details of how alerts will be sounded and what citizens should do in the case of a major accident at the plant.
Relevant authorities are required to inform anyone likely to be affected by an accident and the measures taken to address the emergency.
Meanwhile, an appropriate ‘safety’ distance will have to be included in the plans for any new establishments or infrastructure near existing establishments covered by the directive. The European Commission says that the procedural requirements for public consultation on such plans and projects “have been tightened”.
EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik described the new regulations as providing “better protection against major accidents for citizens and the environment”.
“It will also mean that citizens are better informed,” he added, “and more involved in land-use planning decisions”.
EU member states have until 1 June 2015 to apply the new rules.
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Knowing this country we’ll do it half heartily, entrust a private sector company to look after the mess, they’ll go bang following a corruption scandal and the taxpayer will have to pay double the amount
Agreed, the usual backhanders will apply, some Govt crony will be given the job. Loopholes will be found and rules will be watered down. And as you say taxpayer will pick up the cost…Everything changes, but everything stays the same…!!!
good guess
At what point will we not be able to put bleach down the loo without giving the neighbours 24hours notice, in triplicate. Yet another civil service department that we’ll have to pay for!
How come in the photo above: all the white guys are wearing protective equipment while the coloured guy driving the forklift isn’t?
I glad to see the one sided commenting on this thread. Now for the other side. While I welcome any improvements to safety & a clean environment how much will these new rules cost to implement. Ah yes good old EU & FG FF Lab just make business comply but the least environment friendly of the all are the state run organisations. Ah well at least we can go to Asia & Africa & dump what we want into the local water supply. Green policies the scourge of the environment. As long as green is expensive it will fail ultimately.
Unnecessary for the most part and polluting to our environment, plants and animals… and us – shut them down would be a better solution!
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