Members of the European Parliament have struck a compromise on the proposed Environmental Permitting Regulation, specialist policy outlet ENDS Europe reported. The agreement moves the file toward trilogue negotiations between Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission.

The regulation traces to a Commission proposal published on 5 July 2023. The Commission presented the measure alongside a revised Industrial Emissions Directive as part of the post-Fit-for-55 industrial package.

The draft text sets maximum timeframes for granting, updating, and reviewing permits at large installations. Covered sites include waste-treatment plants, recycling facilities, large combustion plants, and energy-intensive manufacturing facilities. Member states would also operate a single electronic portal for permit applications.

The Commission's draft laid down an 18-month maximum for standard permits. Lower-risk modifications would carry shorter limits. Parliament's draft retained those deadlines while tightening the silence mechanism, per ENDS Europe's reporting.

What does the compromise change for project developers?

For circular-economy operators, the practical question is plain: how long does it take to get a permit to build or modify a recycling plant?

The reported centre of gravity is a regulatory silence mechanism. Under Parliament's draft mandate, applicants could gain default approval if a national authority fails to rule within the statutory window. That default would apply subject to safety and emissions checks defined in secondary EU acts.

The Council has favoured a softer review process that documents delays without conferring automatic authorisation. That divergence will shape trilogue, the three-way negotiation between Parliament, Council, and Commission.

Recycling and waste operators are watching the modification provisions alongside the silence clause. The Commission's 2023 proposal set a six-month limit for certain lower-risk changes. The Council position lengthened that to twelve months. The Parliament's compromise, per ENDS Europe, will fall between the two.

What does the compromise require of national authorities?

Beyond the silence clause, the regulation obliges member states to publish standardised permit conditions online, to designate a single permit authority for each site, and to coordinate environmental, climate, and safety assessments through a shared file. The Council's general approach removed several reporting obligations. Parliament's draft reinstates them in lighter form.

That compromise will need a final shape in trilogue before member-state regulators can prepare internal procedures. Permit waiting periods have exceeded three years in several jurisdictions, including for fibre-sorting lines, plastics-recycling expansions, and battery-recycling hubs.

When does the file move next?

The Permitting Regulation sits alongside a parallel recast of the Industrial Emissions Directive, on which Parliament reached a plenary position earlier in 2024. Both texts draw on Best Available Techniques reference documents developed under the IED, but only the Permitting Regulation prescribes the timeline and procedural shape of the authorisation itself.

The next procedural milestone is a plenary vote in Strasbourg, expected within weeks of the ENVI committee agreement. Adoption would formally empower Parliament's negotiator to enter trilogue. Three-way talks have already been foreshadowed at technical level during the Belgian and Hungarian Council presidencies of 2024.

A final compromise text is achievable before the end of the current parliamentary term in mid-2025. Waste-management trade associations including FEAD, the European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services, have pressed for faster movement to relieve permit queues at sorting and reprocessing sites.

What decides the timeline now is the Council's flexibility on the silence mechanism. Without member-state agreement on default approval, Parliament's mandate is unlikely to survive trilogue unchanged.