Севесо II директива - угаони камен индустријске безбедности
The Seveso II Directive - the cornerstone of the industrial safety

Summary/Abstract: The Directive of the Council 2003/105/EC, gained its popular name following the industrial accident at Seveso, Italy. The aim of this Directive is to prevent and limit the consequences of major accidents involving dangerous substances for man and the environment. Since its first version, adopted in 1982, it has undergone a transformation of three amendments, and its newest version (Seveso III) is currently in the process of deliberation by the Council, on the Commission’s proposal. The Seveso Directive has established itself as a cornerstone of the industrial safety system in the EU, due to its precise and well elaborated legal rules of material and procedural character. In the course of this article, author analyses the legal workings of the Directive, concentrating especially on the scope of terms such as “major accident”, “serious danger to human health and environment” and thresholds of danger, which form the essence of the Directive’s practical functioning. He concludes that, although these terms are opened for discretionary interpretation, the overall effectiveness of the Directive is not compromised. In the second part of the article, author deals with the transposition of the Directive into the Serbian legal system, which was achieved through a Law on the Protection of the Environment, adopted in 2009. Author concludes that the provisions of this general law suffice to enable the conclusion that the Directive’s main aims have been incorporated in Serbian system of legal environmental protection. Then he moves on to analyse the institutional capacity of the Republic of Serbia for successful implementation of Directive’s aims, by analysing the National Strategy for the Approximation in the field of the environment protection, designed by Serbian government. He pinpoints the advantages of the strategy’s approach, such as the inclusion of multi-sector management, while at the same time he denotes the flaws, as for example is the lack of coordination between various institutions involved in the implementation process. Finally, author gives a review of the Commission’s proposal for the amendment of the Directive (Seveso III), stating that the proposal is in line with recent developments in the international environmental law, thus giving his full support for the adoption of the amendment.

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