Building on existing EU legislation and complementing it where necessary, the Recommendation invites Member States in particular to:

• Plan ahead of developments and evaluate possible cumulative effects before granting licences;
• Carefully assess environmental impacts and risks;
• Ensure that the integrity of the well is up to best practice standards;
• Check the quality of the local water, air, soil before operations start, in order to monitor any changes and deal with emerging risks;
• Control air emissions, including greenhouse gas emissions, by capturing the gases;
• Inform the public about chemicals used in individual wells, and
• Ensure that operators apply best practices throughout the project.

The Commission will continue facilitating the exchange of information with Member States, industry and civil society organisations on the environmental performance of shale gas projects.

Next steps

EU Member States are invited to apply the principles within six months and, from December 2014 onwards, inform the Commission each year about measures that they have put in place. The Commission will monitor the application of the Recommendation with a publicly available scoreboard that will compare the situation in different Member States. It will review the effectiveness of this approach in 18 months.

European Commission press release