Towards the Transposition of Directive 2013/30/EU in Italy Available to Purchase

On 28 June 2013, Directive 2013/30/EU¹ was published in the EU Official Journal. The aim of the Directive is to establish minimum requirements for preventing major accidents in offshore hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation and limiting the consequences of such accidents thus increasing the protection of the marine environment and coastal economies."Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive by 19 July 2015" (the Directive, Art. 41). The Directorate-General for Mineral and Energy Resources (DGRME) of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development is playing a key role in the steps towards the transposition of the Directive in Italy. The DGRME coordinated the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the transposition of the Directive, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea. The TWG allowed broad participation of all national administrations concerned with the sector. In June 2014, the TWG produced a draft Legislative Decree, generally agreed by the administrations and the stakeholders, which will be the basis for the future implementation measure. In addition, DGRME officials assisted the Commission in drafting Implementing Act No.1112/2014 taking part both in EUAOG and Advisory Committee meetings. The Implementing Act (IA) does not need transposition, the Directive specifically requires the IA for ensuring uniformity among Member States in transparency and information sharing on major hazards among stakeholders. The IA is considered strategic for monitoring the effectiveness of measures to prevent major accidents and to "strengthen public confidence in the authority and integrity" of the offshore operations. The paper presents the path for the implementation of the Directive, a summary of the work of the TWG and the main points of the IA related to the Directive.