The Council of the European Union has agreed improvements to the regime imposing controls on major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances, set out in Directive 96/82/EC (the Seveso II Directive).

On 28 March 2012, it was announced that EU Member States and MEPs had agreed a revised Directive to replace Seveso II, and on 14 June the European Parliament formally backed the proposed revisions. In the final stage of approval, the European Council adopted Seveso III on Tuesday 26 June.

Seveso III will replace its predecessor in June 2015, when the new system of dangerous substances classification will come into force.

The main objectives are to:

• align Annex 1 (defining the substances falling within the scope of the Directive) to changes in the EU system of classification of dangerous substances;
• adapt Annex 1 to deal with situations occurring after the alignment where substances are included/excluded, that do/do not present a major-accident hazard;
• strengthen the provisions relating to public access to safety information, participation in decision-making and access to justice, and improve the way information is collected, managed, made available and shared;
• introduce stricter standards for inspections of installations to ensure the effective implementation and enforcement of safety rules.

For more information, see:

• Directive 2012/18/EU, on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances.