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The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive is one of the most relevant environmental regulations in Europe. It affects approximately 50,000 installations belonging to the most polluting industrial sectors. Several scholars have studied the effects of the Directive at the firm level, investigating its effects on environmental performance and competitiveness. Despite this, few studies have focused on experiences related to the transference of the Directive's principles to countries beyond the borders of the European Union. This paper describes a case study that assessed the transposition of the European Union Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control scheme to Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia by means of a method designed for this purpose, which provides the guidelines for analysing and benchmarking policy and legislative frameworks in these Mediterranean Partner Countries by supplying information on the European integrated system for Pollution Prevention and Control. The paper outlines the methodological approach adopted in the two-year international 7th Framework Programme project, Boosting Best Available Techniques in the Mediterranean Partner Countries , pointing out various policy scenarios suitable for implementing the key principles of this scheme in Southern Mediterranean countries. The evaluation of these scenarios establishes the steps to take in order to gradually approach the adoption of the most relevant aspects of the European Union's Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control system and the adoption of the Best Available Techniques in the Mediterranean Partner Countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU Environmental Noise Directive (END) requires member states to produce noise action plans for all major airports every five years. Using that data, this paper employs a directional distance function approach to estimate noise-oriented efficiency of 60 European airports between 2006 and 2011. Technical change is calculated using the Malmquist productivity index. The results indicate that European airports have improved their noise efficiency between 2006 and 2011, and some degree of convergence in noise performance across countries is seen. Larger aircraft size is linked to better noise performance. Inefficient airports would also benefit from more stringent night movement limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]