6. Conclusion

The principle of BAT has long been an integral part of French regulations governing classified installations. The 1996 IPPC Directive and its 2008 reformulation have had little substantive impact on the consideration of BAT. In terms of form, on the other hand, Community law has significantly strengthened operators' obligations.

BATs are techniques that meet the assessment criteria defined in Annex IV of Directive 96/61/EC. They are summarized in working documents known as BREFs for Best REFerences (33 published to date). These BREFs are thus a compilation of BATs, but are not a synthesis of all available and potentially interesting techniques for complying with regulatory constraints. Their role is therefore essentially to simplify technical monitoring, a process that is cumbersome for companies to implement.

The use of BAT has one main...