However, some major waste streams also find their way to African countries. Mainly the ELV and E-waste streams. The treatment of these streams there raises some doubts and better collaboration between the involved authorities is required. Recent developments have initiated the first contacts between IMPEL TFS and African countries. Firstly the INECE conference in Cape Town, April 2008, attended by representatives from key countries in Africa. Followed in June 2009 by two INECE workshops on E-waste and the Seaport project held in Ghana. Furthermore a representative of the Basel Convention Regional Centre from Nigeria attended the IMPEL TFS Conference in Sofia in 2008.

For the full story please go to the European Voice website.

The obligations on routine environmental inspections constitute a new challenge for the EU member states, but IMPEL already has done some work in this field: e. g. Guidance Book on Environmental Inspections, Risk Assessment in Inspection Planning, and Inspection Targets and Performance Monitoring. These approaches to environmental inspections should be adapted to the demands of the IED.

At a meeting of IMPEL with the Commission, DG Environment, in July 2011 the Commission asked IMPEL to do more on the new requirements of the environmental legislation related to inspection obligations. As a consequence an exchange of information concerning best practices for the implementation of article 23 of the IED by competent authorities of EU member states and candidate countries will be developed. Its essence could also be useful for the future possible revision of the RMCEI.

“Member States should assist each other administratively in operating this Recommendation.  The establishment by Member States in cooperation with IMPEL of reporting and advice schemes relating to inspectorates and inspection procedures would help to promote best practice across the Community.”

“Member States should assist each other administratively in operating this Recommendation.  The establishment by Member States in cooperation with IMPEL of reporting and advice schemes relating to inspectorates and inspection procedures would help to promote best practice across the Community.”

• increased efficiency in the use of energy is the quickest, most effective way to tackle the issue of climate change,
• by developing the same standards and requirements throughout Europe and the consequent enforcement it has to be made sure that the individual Member States are not played off one against the other by industry,
• small and middle sized enterprises have to be included into the efforts of minimising greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2002/2003 IMPEL carried out a project on energy efficiency in Finland. A second project was carried out in 2010 and the evaluation of the current situation showed that during the last few years only minor changes have occurred in the consideration of energy efficiency issues in permitting and supervising procedures. The projects identified 7 main challenges concerning energy efficiency:

1. In the IPPC directive it is not stipulated how EE should be addressed.
2. Information on EE in sector BREFs is not concrete and precise enough. The horizontal BREF on EE is complex and has not been utilised much.
3. Lack of technical expertise in authorities and companies.
4. Lacking or only occasional cooperation between energy and environmental authorities.
5. There is no general approach in MS to handle the item of EE in the permit revision.
6. Problems with definition of system boundaries.
7. Unclear influence of other instruments like voluntary agreements, Energy Management Systems, tax and ETS-systems on energy efficiency of installations.

For a step-by-step improvement of the situation in permit and inspection authorities participants of the workshop and the project team decided to concentrate on the technical aspects of energy efficiency without taking into account buildings and the influence of tax and ETS systems on it. For the future work of IMPEL in the field of EE they made the following proposals:

• Development of a template for  documents and data required regarding energy efficiency in the permit application
• Workshop on assessment of the application documents regarding energy efficiency (for new and existing installations) and development of permit conditions based on BREFs using a sector specific approach (e.g. food sector, metal processing sector, paper sector, chemical sector, waste treatment plants).
• Training course for dealing with energy efficiency in permitting and inspection.
• Integrating the discussion on energy efficiency in other sector specific IMPEL-projects, e.g. pig farming.

The proposal for this follow-up IMPEL project to be carried out in 2011 and 2012 aims at the development of a template for documents and data required regarding energy efficiency in the permit application.

The final project report showed that competent authorities in IMPEL member Countries Member States regulate pig farms in many different ways. This is both true for installations above and below the threshold in the IPPC directive. There is, for instance, a variety of systems on manure storage and on animal housing. IPPC permits issued by the Member States vary in their level of detail. Inspections vary in intensity and frequency. It also became apparent that measures often have negative effects like leakage from manure lagoons.

The project report concluded that a further exchange of information between IMPEL members is important and the development of practical guidance for permit writers and inspectors would be desirable. This project builds on the previous project and aims at producing practical tools to support the permitting and inspection of IPPC pig farms. As follow up of this project authorities could start applying the guidance tools  and where necessary take measures and make changes in their organisation. This process could be supported by IMPEL by organising training and implementation workshops.