European Union governments agreed Thursday to tighten up limits to polluting emissions by large combustion plants, as they spur efforts to simplify rules and increase environment protection.
After lengthy and difficult discussions, we reached an agreement," said Ladislav Miko, the Czech environment minister who chaired the meeting. The deal was approved by a slight qualified majority, a diplomat close to the negotiations said.
Environment ministers of the 27 E.U. member countries decided at a meeting in Luxembourg that existing large combustion plants, such as power plants or installations in oil refineries and metal producers, would have to use state-of-the-art technologies to reduce their polluting emissions by 2020 at the latest, with a phasing-in period starting in 2016, a spokeswoman for the European Commission said.
New plants should do so two years after the implementation of the new rules, which is expected by 2010, she added.
The new rules will merge seven different existing pieces of legislation and also seek to limit the number of exemptions now in place for the 52,000 installations covered.
The rules, originally proposed by the European Commission at the end of 2007, regulate emissions such as sulfur and nitrogen compounds, dust particles and asbestos, in an effort to reduce air as well as water and soil pollution.
The European Parliament will have to approve the governments' agreement before it can become law. The Parliament, which has recently been reelected, has previously shown a commitment to lower thresholds than originally proposed, but adopted a tougher stance on eliminating exemptions.
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