Writing SEVESO II Safety Report: New EU Guidance Reflecting Five Years' Experience with the Directive

Since the coming into force of the Seveso II Directive, considerable experience has been acquired in regard to preparation of safety reports for establishments that fall under the requirements of this Directive. In light of this experience, the Amendment of the Seveso II Directive adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 16 December 2003, gave the European Commission the mandate "to review by 31 December 2006 in close cooperation with the Member States, the existing Guidance on the Preparation of a safety Report (EUR 17690)". As a result, a technical working group of Member States representing the Seveso competent authorities and the European Commission's Major Accident Hazards Bureau was established to review and re-examine the guidance. This paper describes the results of this effort. The new guidance maintains the high-level and overarching character of the older version, but improves the document through better definition of conceptual elements of the safety report and greater alignment with annex II of the Directive which describes the essential elements of the safety report. For example, the document elaborates explanations of certain key principles, such as: (i) roles and responsibilities of the operator and the competent authorities, the central purpose and focus of the report, (ii) the relevance of the safety report in the context of the Seveso II Directive, and (iii) some specific obligations of the Directive. It also provides assistance in understanding what kind of content and analysis are generally expected in this kind of report. In particular, the guidance suggests the level of detail that might be necessary to characterise the risk at the facility as well as identifies the various approaches to risk assessment that are commonly used as a basis for safety reports in the European Union. Overall, the aim of the guidance is to provide concrete advice to operators and competent authorities on the logic and expectations underlying the safety report, so as to make both preparation and review of the report a more efficient and useful exercise for all parties involved.

WOOD Maureen;  FABBRI Luciano;  STRUCKL Michael; 

2008-08-18

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

JRC38025

0304-3894,   

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2007.12.089,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC38025,   

10.1016/j.jhazmat.2007.12.089,