The European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register was established to provide the Public with easy access to environmental information reported by industrial facilities in the EU. It was established to allow EU and also its Member States to ratify the Protocol on PRTRs to the UN-ECE "Aarhus Convention" on the access to information, public participation in decision making and access to justice in environmental matters. This lecture will provide a definition of PRTR together with the core elements of a PRTR system; a brief description of the legal framework UN-ECE and EU level) and of the information included in the register; the quality assessment of the reported data; and the web site of the European register. The E-PRTR is made of EU Member States' national datasets so a brief description of the implementation of the European legislation in Italy and of the Italian PRTR is also given.
Because of the emission data included (to air, water, land), PRTRs can be regarded to as a potential source of specific country data to develop local emission factors or, in general, a useful source of local information to contribute also in the compilation of the National Emission Inventories as far as industrial processes (large point sources) are concerned. A brief description of how the Italian PRTR contributes in the making of the Italian National Emission Inventory will be provided.