Study of the provisions on penalties related to legislation on Industrial Installation

Feb 1, 2011 - Jun 30, 2011

Project description

This project aimed at providing the European Commission with an overview of how the EU environmental requirements for industrial installations are being implemented and enforced in practice. In order to get operators of the installations covered by the EU’s directives to comply with the EU requirements, it is crucial that the national transposing legislations provide adequate enforcement mechanisms, including penalties that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive. Comparative information on the penalties and enforcement practices in place across the EU-27 will help the Member States to compare their performance with each other and provide impetus for improvements.

Topic

The overall aim of the project was to provide legal support to DG Environment to create an objective and exhaustive overview of the provisions on penalties related to the implementation of legislation on industrial installations in The Netherlands.

Objective

Asser experts identified in detail the national procedures that exist in case of breaching provisions transposing the directives and assess how the criteria of effectiveness, proportionality and dissuasive effect are complied with. Furthermore, they provided a detailed overview of procedures applicable in case of breaches of national transposing legislation for the four directives covered by this study. To conclude, the experts provided two case studies demonstrating how the procedures are functioning in practice.