Effects of the integrated pollution prevention and control directive on environmental protection

In the year 1996 the first EU Integrated Environmental Directive was published and became effective. This IPPC Directive (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive) was meant to create a EU Level Playing Field for industrial permitting. This level playing field should be established by identifying and describing the Best Available Techniques (BAT) to prevent or minimise the environmental pollution from each industrial branch. In 2000 the European iron and steel industry was the first industrial branch that published their BAT Reference (BREF) Document. In this paper a short overview from this process is given and the influence of the IPPC/BREF today, five years after the publication of the directive, is evaluated. Although the iron and steel industry in Europe is overall still rather positive about this directive, a critical comment about the implementation and the future of the IPPC is included.