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Germany tight-lipped about industrial pollutants

Hardy Graupner
November 2, 2017

Germany is among the group of EU nations doing worst when it comes to informing about industry-related harmful emissions, a fresh study has shown. Only few member states passed the test with flying colors.

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Oxea in Oberhausen
Image: Getty Images/L. Schulze

More than half of the European Union's 28 member states fail to provide sufficient information on domestic industry pollutants, a survey by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) showed Thursday.

Among other things, the study looked at how easy it is to obtain information from member states about emissions levels at major industrial facilities. It said that the EEB was unable to get hold of relevant documents for such plants in Germany, Austria, France, Greece, Poland and the UK, the very nations doing worst in the ranking.

Germany ended up in the lowest category, meaning that "minimal requirements" in terms of nations' information policy were not met.

Keeping mum

The EEB survey criticizes that there is no central authority in Germany responsible for providing data about industrial emissions. Rather, such information has to be obtained from regional authorities in the 16 states, with no requirement in some of them to actually publish any documents on emissions.

Some states in Germany, the survey said, even collect a fee for allowing access to such data.

Only three EU member countries made it into the top category, notably Ireland, Norway and Bulgaria whose information policy was found to be excellent.