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The Directive introduced important changes and new concepts into government requirements for control of major industrial hazards in Europe. The two-tiered approach, the safety report, and concepts such as the safety management system, "demonstrating" safety, and land-use planning, are several elements of the Directive indicative of markedly more sophisticated expectations in regard to major-accident hazard control than in the past. The Directive clearly entailed several new legal obligations for industry, however, the impact on competent authorities was equally profound. In particular, inspection obligations associated with hazardous installations, a core component of enforcement efforts, changed dramatically as a result of the new Directive, and above all, in terms of competencies required.
Moreover, new inspection performance standards were included in the Directive, for example, the obligation to verify that the operator can demonstrate that the site's safety programme is appropriate for controlling the risk. In addition, the Directive established the requirement to conduct annual inspections of upper-tier installations, or as an alternative the competent authority could institute an inspections programme based on "systematic appraisal."
The Commission's work in support of Seveso inspections aims to achieve two important goals: promoting consistency in requirements for operators throughout the Europe Union and maintaining a minimum standard quality of inspections. The primary vehicle of support is technical exchange using a variety of forms--in particular, workshops, a technical working groups, guidance and reports, and websites--for sharing tools and best practices for inspections and for safety management between inspectors and inspection programmes in the Member States.
The Technical Working Group for Seveso II Inspections (TWG 2)consists of representatives from Member State and Candidate Country programmes for Seveso inspections. It is chaired by a Member State and managed by the JRC (MAHB). The work of TWG 2 is sponsored by the Committee for the Competent Authorities for Implementation of the Seveso II Directive (CCA), a standing committee authorised by Article 22 of the Directive and managed by DG-Environment. The TWG 2 meets annually and advises on the yearly workplan as well as making substantial contributions in terms of leadership and resources. For this reason the work is highly collaborative, rich with important input "from the field" (from inspector experience) and communicated with the view of making the information as relevant as possible to all Seveso inspection programmes throughout the EU.
In consultation with the TWG, the JRC also manages the programme of "Mutual Joint Visits" (MJVs) for Seveso Inspections. Established in 1999, the programme consists of "visits", that is, technical workshops on Seveso inspection topics. Seveso countries (which include not only EU, but also EEA and Candidate Countries) take turns in hosting these visits (hence visits are "mutual"). The visits are aimed at working inspectors across the EU (and thereby "joint" visits) charged with assessing compliance with the Seveso II Directive in industrial installations.
The JRC and the Technical Working Group have also a number of other initiatives underway. Further information can be found in other sections of the website.