EPER Guide
Guidance Document for EPER implementation
According to Article 3 of the Commission Decision
of 17 July 2000 (2000/479/EC) on the implementation of an European Pollutant
Emission Register (EPER)
according to Article 15 of Council Directive 96/61/EC concerning Integrated
Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC)
European Commission
Directorate-General for Environment
November 2000
On 25 January 2000 the Committee referred to in Article 19 of Council Directive 96/61/EC (IPPC Directive) gave a favourable opinion on a draft Commission Decision on the implementation of a European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) according to Article 15 of the IPCC Directive (Ref. 1). The Commission Decision, to be referred to as the EPER Decision, was adopted on 17 July 2000 and published in the Official Journal of the European Communities under reference 2000/479/EC (Ref. 2).
Article 3 of the EPER Decision states that the Commission will facilitate preparatory national workshops and prepare a “Guidance Document for EPER implementation” by December 2000 with the involvement of industrial representatives and in consultation with the Committee referred to in Article 19 of Directive 96/61/EC. The Guidance Document will address details on reporting formats and particulars, including interpretation of definitions, data quality and data management, reference to emission estimation methods and sector-specific sub-lists of pollutants for source categories.
The current document represents this “Guidance Document for EPER implementation”. The Guidance Document is the official guideline of the European Commission that facilitates Member States to interpret and fulfil the reporting requirements of the EPER Decision 2000/479/EC without changing any of the actual requirements of the EPER Decision. For this, the Guidance Document addresses details of the EPER Decision on reporting requirements and formats, sector-specific sub-lists of pollutants for source categories and reference to emission estimation methods. The Guidance Document has been developed with involvement of stakeholders from industry and in consultation with the members of the IPPC Article 19 Committee. The consultation of the IPPC Article 19 Committee took place in two meetings: the draft framework of the Guidance Document was discussed in April 2000 and the final draft of the Guidance Document was discussed in September 2000. After that, written comments were received and taken into account in this final text.
Part I of the Guidance Document - General explanation - describes the background and the objectives of the IPPC emission inventory, as well as the selected pollutants to be reported and the reporting unit and discusses data management and data quality. Part I gives the context of the EPER in relation to international agreements and developments with respect to other emission inventories and registers.
Part II - Reporting requirements - focuses on the interpretation of the requirements of the EPER Decision. This part explains the mandatory reporting aspects and provides guidance to the Member States in order to facilitate and harmonise the EPER reporting to the Commission. Guidance Document for EPER implementation – 6 –
Part III - Specifications - provides appendices with more detailed information on subjects referred to in Parts I and II. The appendices include the EPER Decision 2000/479/EC and its Annexes, detailed explanatory examples, reference to standardised emission determination methods, and detailed sector-specific sub-lists of pollutants released from IPPC Annex I activities, both for air and water.