Article 5 — Obligations regarding the handling of plastic pellets

1. Economic operators shall take the following actions: (a) establish a risk management plan for each installation in accordance with Annex I, taking into account the nature and size of the installation as well as the scale of its operations; (b) install the equipment and execute the procedures described in the risk management plan; and (c) notify the risk management plan to the competent authority of the Member State where the installation is located together with a self-declaration of conformity issued in accordance with the model form set out in Annex II. Economic operators shall keep the risk management plan up to date, taking into account in particular the weaknesses identified through their experience in handling plastic pellets, and shall make it available to competent authorities on demand. 2. Economic operators that are small, medium-sized or large enterprises operating installations where plastic pellets in quantities below a threshold of 1500 tonnes have been handled in the previous calendar year or that are microenterprises shall notify an update of the risk management plan for each installation as well as a renewal of the self-declaration of conformity to the competent authority of the Member State where the installation is located every 5 years from the last notification. 3. Competent authorities may require economic operators to take the following actions: (a) change risk management plans notified in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 to ensure that the losses can effectively be prevented and, where appropriate, contained and cleaned up and that requirements set out in Annex I are complied with; and (b) implement any of the actions listed in Annex I in a timely manner. 4. EU carriers and non-EU carriers shall ensure that the actions set out in Annex III are implemented. 5. When economic operators implement the actions set out in the risk management plan and the EU carriers and non-EU carriers implement the actions laid down in Annex III, they shall do so in the following order of priority: (a) actions to prevent spills; (b) actions to contain spills to avoid them becoming a loss; (c) actions to clean up after a spill or loss. 6. Economic operators, EU carriers and non-EU carriers shall have the following obligations: (a) ensure that their staff are trained according to their specific roles and responsibilities and that they are aware of and are able to use the relevant equipment and execute the procedures set out to ensure compliance with this Regulation; and (b) keep records of annually estimated quantities of losses and of the total quantities of plastic pellets handled. As from six months after the publication of the relevant harmonised standard in the Official Journal of the European Union or from the date of application of the implementing act referred to in Article 18(3) economic operators, EU carriers and non-EU carriers shall estimate the quantities of losses referred to in point (b) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph, in accordance with the standardised methodology referred to in Article 18. Authorised representatives shall provide evidence of the compliance by non-EU carriers with the obligation laid down in point (a) of the first subparagraph. Economic operators and EU carriers and authorised representatives shall retain records referred to in point (b) of the first subparagraph for a period of five years and make them available to competent authorities on demand, and, where applicable, to certifiers for the purposes of Article 6. 7. Where an action taken for the prevention, containment and clean-up of spills and losses fails, economic operators, EU carriers and non-EU carriers shall take corrective measures without delay. 8. Every year economic operators that are medium-sized or large enterprises operating installations where plastic pellets in quantities equal to or above a threshold of 1500 tonnes have been handled in the previous calendar year shall, for each installation, carry out an internal assessment on the state of compliance of the installation with the requirements of the risk management plan laid down in Annex I or with the conditions under which the permit referred to in Article 7(1), point (a), was granted. The economic operators referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall retain records of the internal assessments for a period of five years and shall make them available to competent authorities on demand, and to certifiers for the purposes of Article 6.