PRTR in BelgiumSituation in 2007

« OECD PRTR Task Force

10th meeting »Copenhagen,27 february 2007

Greet Vos, Koen Smeets & Michel Amand

Content of the presentation

International and European Context Context in BELGIUM Objectives and scope Examples

–in Flanders–in Wallonia

PRTR datas on the web Conclusions

International and European Context

Many International and European obligations in the environmental field (including PRTR)

 A variety of monitoring and reporting duties for the Member States (that so far have not been harmonised

at international and European level)

 Member States seek to devise efficient systems that facilitate the compliance with the various monitoring

and reporting duties

Context in Belgium

In 2003 : Lower the administrative burden by streamlining regulatory requirements for companies and using IT tools becomes a priority for Belgian authorities (regional cooperation agreement signed on 10th December 2003)

In 2004, Belgian Regions reaffirm their desire and commitment to build an administrative simplification process at all levels (ex : environment, industrial policy, …)

=> development of specific regional tools

Integrated environmental Reporting

Walloon RegionREGINE

Référentiel Environnement : Gestion INtégrée des

Entreprises

Flemish RegionIMJV

Integraal Milieu Jaar Verslag

a tool for implementing PRTR by lowering administrative burdens and streamlining environmental regulatory

requirements

Objectives

Streamlining by lowering the burdens both for companies and the administration in the field of environmental data collection and reporting

Facing many different reporting obligations at regional, federal, European and international level

Evaluating the effectiveness of regional environmental policies

Implement PRTRs

Objectives Building one-stop shop (paper and electronic)

applying IT-based solutions and integration techniques

Increasing information exchange between governmental bodies, optimizing information management and by improving its availability

Administrations will benefit from a single and centralised information and will reduce the data encoding work.

=> Save time and money

Scope

Integration of different information requirements in one form, available on the web (personal login, personal form, attached documents, etc)

Form set up within the framework of streamlining environmental regulation and ensuring coherence of collected information

Scope Single deliverance (once per year) of

information to one administration (single and centralized source of information)

Common database with information on companies/facilities + single identifier

New central management application

Different governmental services work together

Flemish region: the IMJV-project stepwise integration project: started in 2005 Improving information management to support environmental policy (cooperation between administrations) Better customer serviceBy:

Integration of five different environmental information requirements (to different administrations) in one formsingle deliverance (one point of time) of information to one administrationTailor made and personalized declaration form (for every company/exploitation)Interactive website to exchange information (personal login, wizards, electronic signature)

Flemish Region: IMJV-project The interactive website http://imjv.milieuinfo.be

Flemish Region: IMJV-project The interactive website http://imjv.milieuinfo.be

Flemish Region: IMJV-project The interactive website http://imjv.milieuinfo.be

Flemish region: the IMJV-project

ERWDB

EIL DB

Emission-InventoryAir

IMJV-backoffice

VMM

Datawarehousereporting

Emission RegistersWater

Data assimilationvalidation

WasteDB

OVAM

Wastedatabase

IMJVDB

e-IMJVForm

INFO-e-Office

CBBDB

MVDBDB

Consultation (geo-office) FacilitiesEnvironmental permitReleases water & airTransfer of waste & wastewater

MMIS

Centralised dbfor facilities

IMJV-database Environmental permits

webservice

Integraal Milieu Jaar VerslagIntegrated Environmental Annual Report

reporting year 2005

sent forms received forms  electronic

forms 

totaal 17.045 15.341 90% 1.724 11%

Releases to air 360 331 92% 129 39%

Energie 603 525 87% 204 39%

Releases to water 651 586 90% 410 70%

Groundwater 696 550 79% 88 16%

Waste production 14.047 10.816 77% 1.542 14%

Waste transport 2.255 1.443 64% 307 21%

Waste treatment 1.677 1.073 64% 246 23%

Integraal Milieu Jaar VerslagIntegrated Environmental Annual Report

Form 2006 Information linked to environmental

license (water & air emissions, use of energie & water)

Production, treatment and transport of (industrial) waste

Groundwater statistics concerning groundwater subtraction

Later integration Tax declaration of waste water treatment

(surface water) and substraction of ground water

Declaration of CO2 emissions

# companies

800

700

16.000

17.000

180

Integraal Milieu Jaar Verslag : Integrated Environmental Annual Report procedures an deadlines

Administration :1 december year x : completing list of facilities with

reporting obligation 1 february year x+1 : personalised and pre-filled form

available onlineOperator :15 march y x+1: declaration waste production year x30 april y x+1: declaration on remaining data and

informations (methodologies,…) year xAdministration :15 may : reminder for missing reportstill 31 december : assesment and quality assuranceValidated data to be published, submitted to operators

for final 31 march year X+2 : requested data transmitted to the

European commission

The IMJV-project: measuring administrative burden reduction

Administrative burdens concerning waste producers were reduced significantly in 2005:

Aim: Calculating statistics about waste tranfer for all

different sectors European reporting concerning waste Old regulation: approx. 40.000 companiesNew regulation: statistical sample survey, approx.

16.000 companies (covering all relevant sectors, based upon NACE codes

Administrative cost reduction: 6,5 million €

Demonstration on

http://bilan.environnement.wallonie.be

Wallon Region: REGINE Référentiel Environnement : Gestion INtégrée des EntreprisesReferential Environment: Integrated Management of Enterprises

Referential Environment: Integrated Management of Enterprises

Companies

EnvironmentalReferential

e-Forms

CampaignDatabase

Pre

fillin

g

Edition

WATER ...AIR

Back-Office -ReferentialDatawarehouse

Reporting

UserInterface

MRWReferential

BCE

Validation

UserInterface

Onl

ine

publ

icat

ion

Impo

rtat

ion

Submission

Expl

oita

tion

Back-Office -Campaign

Management

Front Office

1

4

2

35

6

7

Architecture : DataFlow

Validation

8

Referential Environment: Integrated Management of Enterprises

International obligations obligations in one single form:

4 International Conventions and their protocols, 7 European Directives, 3 European Regulations, 2 European Decisions, 1 European Recommendation, 2 Walloon laws, 1 Walloon Decree

Several non legally binding agreements.

Referential Environment: Integrated Management of Enterprises

Targeted companies + 300

EPER

LPS

PRTR

LCP

Emissions trading

WASTESTATISTICS REGULATIONS

Referential Environment: Integrated Management of Enterprises

Form structure

Part - Sub-part Number of facilities Reply rate Identification 286 facilities 76 %

General information 286 facilities 76 %

Energy

– part auto-production 46 facilities 85 %

– part consumption 267 facilities 73 %

– part biogas 14 facilities 71 %

– part MWI 4 facilities 100 %

– part co-incinerated wastes 19 facilities 100 % Air

– part Emissions Trading 113 facilities (127 installations) 94 %

– part LCP 10 facilities 80 %

– part Emissions Register 190 sites 77 % Water 190 sites 77 % Waste

– part manufacturing industry 247 facilities 77 %

– part eco-industry 39 facilities 54 % Environmental expenditure 286 facilities 46 %

Référentiel Environnement : Gestion INtégrée des Entreprises

Referential Environment: Integrated Management of Enterprises

Due to a personalisation and pre-filling up of the form according to the company’s profile and the regulatory requirements, Companies are requested to report only once a year on relevant specifics datas, benefit from help to fill up the form and are able to follow the historic of validated data.Regional administration services assess quality of the data.The system will allow to dispatch validated data towards the referential “environment”, towards the databases of different administration services (air, water, waste, energy, etc), towards the competent authorities (federal, European, etc…) and will enable further public access to environmental and PRTR datas

Referential Environment: Integrated Management of EnterprisesProcedure and deadlines

Administration :

1st january year x+1 : personalised and pre-filled form available online

Operator :

12 march x+1: « Emission trading » declaration year x

31 march : declaration on remaining datas and informations (methodologies,…) year x

Administration :

31 march till 30 september : assesment and quality assurance

Validated datas to be published, submitted to operators for final (deadline for comments: one month)

31 march year X+2 : requested datas transmitted to the European commission

Belgian PRTR datas on the web

1) European PRTR website:

www.eper (prtr).ec.europa.eu

2) Regional competent authorities websites

http://bilan.environnement.wallonie.be

http://imjv.milieuinfo.be

3) Belgian Aarhus Convention website:

www.aarhus.be

Legal contextFlemish region

Legislation in force since 2004 and adapted on 8

december 2006 (E-PRTR Regulation

operative)

Walloon region

Legislation to be adopted in 2007 but

REGINE was in force since January 2005

on voluntary agreement

UNECE PRTR Protocol to be ratified in 2007

ConclusionsThe integrated and single survey has allowed: Ensuring coherence between collected

information for different administrative services Improving quality of collected data Reduce the administrative burden Improving cooperation between services and

administrations Increasing transparency and improving

dialogue between companies and public authorities

Contacts

Walloon environmental authority Belgium

Marianne PETITJEAN

Michel AMAND

MRW - DGRNE – DCEhttp://

bilan.environnement.wallonie.be

Flemish environmental authority Belgium

Dick van Straaten - Environment, Nature and Energy Department

Marie-Rose van den Hende – VMM

Greet Vos – VMM

Koen Smeets - OVAM

http://imjv.milieuinfo.be