Filenews 20 December 2022 - by Angelos Nicolaou
A large number of existing facilities, including EAC power stations, Paphos landfills, biogas plants, waste management units, slaughterhouses, pig farms and poultry farms, are unable to obtain an industrial emissions permit (IBR) due to non-compliance with urban planning criteria. A ban on the operation of some of these facilities would have a serious negative impact on the economy of the Republic and, given the obligation of the Republic to comply immediately with the provisions of a Community Directive, a legal impasse was created.
To this end, the President of the Republic has referred back the Law on Industrial Emissions (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) and requests its review by the Parliamentary Committee on the Environment, within 15 days.
The purpose of the referral of the law is to amend the basic law, in order to provide in the basic law for the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment to allow the operation of facilities that were in operation before the entry into force of the basic law, to continue operating without a valid planning permit, building permit and / or certificate of approval (requirement of the basic law), provided that the other environmental requirements are met, with the granting of an Industrial Emissions Permit in accordance with the basic law.
In the referral, it is noted that 73 facilities fall under the basic law, of which 34 facilities do not hold a valid Planning Permit or Building Permit.
As President Anastasiades notes in the referral, the law under review is considered not to achieve the intended purpose, as it is practically impossible to secure the necessary permits from the affected entities in a timely manner, with the result that from 1/1/2024 a large number of facilities operate without ABE and their operation must be terminated.
