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COMMISSION NOTICE Guidelines providing a common understanding of the term ‘environmental damage’ as defined in Article 2 of Directive 2004/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage · European Union

| 35. | Another possible source of relevant information consists in the results of regulatory oversight under other applicable Union environmental legislation. An example would be routine inspections of industrial facilities under the Industrial Emissions Directive (68). While, for purposes of liability, not all damaging occurrences will coincide with regulatory infringements by an operator, regulatory infringements make damaging occurrences more likely. This is because the regulatory requirements concerned are aimed at controlling the potential or actual risks to human health and the environment associated with the occupational activities concerned. As a consequence, compliance with them should, in practice, reduce the likelihood that damaging occurrences will arise. By the same token, non-compliance with these requirements – including serious flouting of them – makes it more likely that damaging occurrences will arise. Provided that there are good systems for sharing information, monitoring of compliance with regulatory requirements should therefore help competent authorities under the Directive to know about environmental damage or the imminent threat of damage, establish the operator and characterise the damaging occurrence. It may also assist competent authorities in the assessment of environmental damage, furnishing information about the nature of polluting emissions, for example.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.