Directive (EU) 2024/1785 of 24 April 2024, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 15 July 2024, inserted into Directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions Article 14a, under which “Member States shall require the operator to prepare and implement, for each installation falling within the scope of this Chapter, an environmental management system” (EUR-Lex). The Directive has been in force since 4 August 2024 (European Commission) and its Article 4 sets 1 July 2026 as the transposition deadline. Already present among the best available techniques, for example as BAT 1 of the conclusions for large combustion plants (EUR-Lex), the environmental management system becomes a direct obligation of the operator, with minimum content, publication and external audit. In Italy the Directive does not yet appear to have been transposed, while at European level a Commission proposal of December 2025 intervenes precisely on these provisions.
The minimum content of the system: Article 14a(2)
Article 14a(2) lists what the system includes “at least”: environmental policy objectives for the continuous improvement of the environmental performance and safety of the installation, with measures to prevent waste, optimise the use of resources and energy and the reuse of water, and prevent or reduce the use or emissions of hazardous substances; objectives and performance indicators in relation to significant environmental aspects, which take account of the benchmarks of the BAT conclusions; for installations subject to Article 8 of Directive 2012/27/EU, the results of the energy audit or of the energy management system; an inventory of the hazardous chemicals present in or emitted by the installation, with a risk assessment and an analysis of the possibilities for substitution; the measures, including corrective and preventive measures, taken to achieve the objectives; and the transformation plan under Article 27d (EUR-Lex).
Benchmarks are defined in Article 3, point (13b), as “the indicative range of environmental performance levels associated with best available techniques, which is to be used as a reference in the EMS”. BAT conclusions determine the aspects to be covered and, according to the Commission, may add specific sectoral elements (EUR-Lex). Paragraph 3 scales the level of detail to the nature, scale and complexity of the installation and allows reference to documents already drawn up under other Union legislation. The European legislature does not require just any system, but a system with a verifiable minimum content.
Publicity, review and audit: the system leaves the company perimeter
Paragraph 4 requires Member States to ensure that the information listed in paragraph 2 is made available on the internet, free of charge and without restricting access to registered users, with the possibility of redacting or excluding data whose disclosure would adversely affect the interests protected by Directive 2003/4/EC. The operator prepares and implements the system in accordance with the BAT conclusions for the sector by 1 July 2027, except for the installations referred to in Article 3(4) of the amending Directive; the system is reviewed periodically and audited for the first time by the same date and then at least every three years, by a conformity assessment body accredited in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 or by an environmental verifier under Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009 (EMAS), “who verifies the conformity of the EMS, and of its implementation, with this Article” (EUR-Lex).
The permit must contain provisions laying down the characteristics of the system (Article 14(1)(ba)) and the obligation to report to the authority, at least annually, on progress towards the environmental policy objectives (point (d)(iii)) (EUR-Lex). The Commission clarifies that the system need not form part of the permit and that the authority’s obligation to include those provisions, subject to the transitional regime and in any event enforceable by 1 September 2036, must be distinguished from the operator’s obligation to prepare and implement the system (EUR-Lex). The operator’s deadline does not coincide with the updating of its permit: waiting for the reconsideration of the permit before starting work would, in our view, be a planning error.
Transposition in Italy: a delegation not yet exercised
Law No 91 of 13 June 2025, the European Delegation Law 2024, lays down in Article 10 the specific criteria for transposition, including effective, dissuasive and proportionate penalties and deflationary instruments such as the formal notice to comply (Normattiva). Article 34 of Law No 70 of 7 May 2026 delegated to the Government the adoption of the legislative decree by 30 June 2026, a deadline extended by ninety days if the deadline for the opinion of the parliamentary committees expires within the thirty days preceding it or later (Normattiva).
At the time of writing, no transposing legislative decree appears to have been published in the Official Gazette (Gazzetta Ufficiale) (Gazzetta Ufficiale); the database of national implementing measures records no measures notified by Italy (EUR-Lex); Title III-bis of Part Two of the Environmental Code (Legislative Decree No 152 of 3 April 2006), in the text updated to 28 August 2026, contains no provisions transposing Article 14a: the only references it contains are those to EMAS and ISO 14001 for the frequency of review (Article 29-octies, paragraphs 8 and 9) (Normattiva). The arrangements for publication, supervision and penalties therefore remain to be defined at national level.
The simplification proposal: a framework still in motion
On 10 December 2025 the Commission presented proposal COM(2025) 986, part of the environmental simplification package known as the Environmental Omnibus, which rewrites Article 14a: it allows a single system to cover several installations of the same operator or of the same undertaking in the same Member State; it deletes the inventory of hazardous chemicals, the implementing act on the information to be published, the audit obligation and the obligation to draw up the transformation plans to be included in the system; and it postpones to 1 July 2030 the deadline for preparing and implementing the system (EUR-Lex). Procedure 2025/0394(COD) is still ongoing (EUR-Lex); the Commission’s questions and answers document of 15 September 2026 states that it does not take account of the proposed amendments, so as not to prejudge the outcome of the legislative procedure (EUR-Lex).
Until the proposal is adopted, the text in force remains that of Directive (EU) 2024/1785. Planning on the assumption of a postponement to 2030 would be a risk not justified by the law in force: the inventory of substances and the audit remain obligations due until the legislature decides otherwise.
The relationship with ISO 14001 and EMAS
The Directive does not impose a model. To the question whether the system must be EMAS or ISO 14001, the Commission answers “No” and adds: “However, EMS developed under EMAS or ISO 14001 can be directly referred to” (EUR-Lex). Recital 26 of the amending Directive identifies as auditor a body accredited “as required under ISO 17021” or an EMAS environmental verifier (EUR-Lex), and the 2025 proposal justifies the deletion of the audit by observing that EMAS and ISO 14001 already provide for periodic internal and external audits (EUR-Lex).
For those who have updated their system to ISO 14001:2026, the existing structure is the natural place in which to add the missing elements. The certified system is a working basis, but it does not in itself demonstrate compliance with Article 14a.
The data of the system: indicators, digital tools and artificial intelligence
Recital 42 observes that “Digital tools such as digitalised management systems might help to quantitatively and qualitatively assess and manage pollution-related risks, and help operators in the transformation of their installations” (EUR-Lex). A system based on indicators that are published and reported annually to the authority depends on the quality of the data feeding it; ISO 14001:2026 too, in clause A.6.1.4 of the informative annex, includes among opportunities the use of advanced data analytics and real-time data collection.
In our view, where data on consumption, waste or emissions are estimated, supplemented or filtered by artificial intelligence systems, the management system must document the method, the person who validates the result and the treatment of missing data. A published indicator is a statement of the operator, even when it is calculated by an algorithm. The issue goes beyond the company perimeter: Directive (EU) 2024/2881 requires authorities to make use of the emissions information reported under Directive 2010/75/EU when assessing air quality by means of modelling or objective estimation (EUR-Lex), with a view to the European air quality standards for 2030.
Critical aspects: certification is not the same as the Article 14a system
The first aspect concerns the object of the verification. The audit under Article 14a ascertains the conformity of the system and of its implementation “with this Article”, not with a technical standard; an ISO 14001 certificate attests conformity with the standard, within the declared scope. No voluntary certificate attests, on its own, compliance with a legal obligation that has its own content. The inventory of substances according to the criteria of the REACH Regulation, the benchmarks of the BAT conclusions, the results of the energy audit and the transformation plan must therefore be verified one by one: a certificate, as we observed in relation to certification schemes for management systems, is valid for what its reference covers.
The second aspect concerns the perimeter: the Directive in force reasons for each installation, whereas a certified system may cover a site or an entire undertaking, and the 2025 proposal that would bring the two levels closer is not law in force. The third concerns publicity: the information in the system is intended for anyone, and redaction is confined to the interests in Article 4(2) of Directive 2003/4/EC. What the operator writes in the system must stand up before the public as well as before the auditor.
Conclusions
Article 14a turns the environmental management system into an obligation of the operator with minimum content, publication on the internet and external audit, to be implemented under the text in force by 1 July 2027. In Italy the transposing legislative decree is still missing and at European level proposal COM(2025) 986 could reduce the content and move the deadline to 2030; neither element modifies, at present, the text in force. It is for the Government to exercise the delegation and for the European legislature to decide on simplification; it is for operators to prepare on the basis of the text in force. It is advisable to compare the certified system now with the list in paragraph 2, and to document the gaps and the origin of the data feeding the indicators, without considering certification sufficient to demonstrate compliance.
Author: Valentina Grazia Sapuppo
