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The list below is an extract from the French and European official gazettes concerning the environment, energy and health and safety at work in March 2025.
ENVIRONMENT
Incorporation of BREF LCP provisions into classified 3110 combustion plants and other amendments to the combustion order applicable to plants subject to authorization under heading 3110.
Arrêté du 3 août 2018 relatif aux installations de combustion d'une puissance thermique nominale totale supérieure ou égale à 50 MW soumises à autorisation au titre de la rubrique 3110 MODIFIE PAR Arrêté du 30 janvier 2025 modifiant l'arrêté du 3 août 2018 [JORF du 16 mars 2025]
The Order of January 30, 2025 integrates into this text the provisions of Implementing Decision 2021/2326 of November 30, 2021 (BREF LCP), in order to have a single regulatory text covering large combustion plants, and to make it easier for plants subject to the BREF LCP to read it. It is also supplemented by general provisions applying to all combustion units concerned by this text (whether or not they apply the BREF LCP BAT conclusions).
Numerous modifications are made, particularly when BAT conclusions are applied (modification of air emission limit values, improvement of general environmental performance, addition of ELVs for water, changes to air and water discharge monitoring, environmental management system, etc.).
Controlling the use of water unsuitable for human consumption in ICPEs for domestic purposes
Code de l'environnement Articles R. 512-68 to R. 512-81 : Dispositions communes à l'autorisation, à l'enregistrement et à la déclaration (Livre V, Titre Ier, Chapitre II, Section 4) MODIFIE PAR Décret n° 2025-239 du 14 mars 2025 relatif à l'utilisation d'eaux impropres à la consommation humaine pour des usages domestiques au sein des installations classées ET PARUTION de l'Arrêté du 14 mars 2025 relatif à l'utilisation d'eaux impropres à la consommation humaine pour des usages domestiques au sein des installations classées pour la protection de l'environnement [JORF du 15 mars 2025].
Decree no. 2025-239 of March 14, 2025 and the publication, on the same day, of the associated Order define the regulatory framework for the use of water unfit for human consumption in Installations Classified for Environmental Protection (ICPE) for domestic purposes.
In this sense, the use of these waters, considered as non-drinking waters, is permitted in ICPEs when the quality of these waters has no influence, direct or indirect, on the health of the user, and when they are intended for the following limited domestic uses:
- laundry ;
- washing interior floors ;
- excreta evacuation;
- supplying decorative fountains not intended for human consumption;
- cleaning of exterior surfaces;
- watering vegetable gardens;
- watering green spaces on a building scale.
Protection and sustainable management of hedges
Code de l'environnement Articles L. 412-21 à L. 412-28 : La protection et la gestion durable des haies (Livre IV, Titre Ier, Chapitre II, Section 4) CREATED BY LAW no. 2025-268 of March 24, 2025 for food sovereignty and the renewal of generations in agriculture [JORF du 25 mars 2025].
Law no. 2025-268 of March 24, 2025 provides a framework for the protection of hedgerows, whose value is recognized for the ecosystem services they provide. Hedgerow destruction projects are subject to a single prior declaration or, in certain cases, a single authorization.
NOTE: For the purposes of this text, a hedge is a linear unit of vegetation, other than crops, with a maximum width of twenty metres and comprising at least two of the following three elements: shrubs, trees or other woody plants.
These provisions do not apply to avenues and lines of trees, whether or not they border roads open to public traffic, or to hedges bordering buildings or squares, which form part of a garden or park adjoining a dwelling, or which are located within such an enclosure.
SAFETY
New model notices and certificates for individual monitoring of employees' state of health
Arrêté du 16 octobre 2017 fixant le modèle d'avis d'aptitude, d'avis d'inaptitude, d'attestation de suivi individuel de l'état de santé et de proposition de mesures d'aménagement de poste MODIFIE PAR l'Arrêté du 3 mars 2025 [JORF du 15 mars 2025]
In order to take into account the changes brought about by Law no. 2021-1018 of August 2, 2021 to strengthen occupational health prevention, known as the "occupational health" law, new models of notices and certificates for individual monitoring of employees' state of health have been published with, as the main new features, the following modifications:
- The inclusion of post-exposure, post-professional and mid-career visits in the employee's individual follow-up certificate (Appendix 1);
- Expansion of monitoring by occupational health nurses, corresponding medical practitioners and collaborating physicians;
- Details of individual measures to adjust, adapt, transform or reorganize working hours.
Modification of the criteria for making covered parking lots (type PS) subject to fire and panic safety regulations in establishments open to the public (ERP).
Arrêté du 25 juin 1980 portant approbation des dispositions générales du règlement de sécurité contre les risques d'incendie et de panique dans les ERP MODIFIE PAR l'arrêté du 18 mars 2025 [JORF du 26 mars 2025] [Decree of June 25, 1980 approving the general provisions of the safety regulations against the risks of fire and panic in ERP modified by the decree of March 18, 2025].
In order to clarify the scope of application of the fire and panic safety regulations to covered parking lots (type PS), the decree of March 18, 2025 modifies the criteria for their application.
This still applies to indoor parking lots that can accommodate more than ten motor vehicles, and the total permissible laden weight of each vehicle admitted to these parks must not exceed 3.5 tonnes (unchanged). However, the following are now excluded from the scope of this decree:
- covered parking lots linked exclusively to a residential building, with a maximum of ten spaces open to non-residents of the building. Parking spaces made available to non-residents of these buildings for periods of thirty consecutive days or more are not counted towards the ten-space threshold.
- covered parking lots linked exclusively to a building for professional use, with spaces reserved for users of these buildings, as well as those with spaces open to non-users of these buildings for periods of thirty consecutive days or more.
Previously, this decree did not apply to covered parking lots linked exclusively to a residential building or a building governed by the French Labor Code.