Today’s European Parliament plenary vote to adopt the provisional agreement negotiated for the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) is a step in the right direction.

Christian Schaible, Head of Zero Pollution Industry at the European Environmental Bureau said:

“It is somewhat reassuring that the majority of members of the European Parliament did not fall into the web of disingenuous arguments, that only pretends to help farmers while enabling business-as-usual for the largest agro-industrial livestock operators who already benefit from wide and significant concessions. Let’s get the IED over the line and start working collectively for people and the environment.”

The Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) is a key European Union law to prevent pollution at source from around 50,000 industrial installations in the European Union. After reaching an agreement in interinstitutional negotiations, the final Parliament plenary stamp was put into question by the introduction of a final-hour amendment to further relax rules on industrial livestock farms. By doing this, conservative voices in the EPP and ID parliament groups kept the future of the IED uncertain.

The majority of Members of the European Parliament stayed true to the legislative process in place, adopting the agreement that they were part of negotiating in November of last year and already includes significant concessions to large-scale livestock rearing activities.

The agreement now awaits the final step of formal Member States approval.

ENDS

Notes for editors:

Joint civil society and industry letter on the IED deal

Joint reaction to IED provisional agreement

IED website

Amendments tabled by (mainly) EPP MEPs

Amendments tabled by ID group

IED roll call vote outcome