The European Commission has unveiled proposals to streamline the legislation on environmental impact assessments.
The move is intended to lighten administrative burdens and make it easier to assess the potential impacts of major projects, without weakening existing environmental safeguards. Current levels of environmental protection will be strengthened, and developments should benefit from a more harmonised regulatory framework, the Commission said.
Environment Commissioner Janez Poto?nik said: ‘For the past 25 years, the EIA Directive has helped ensure that environmental considerations are integrated into decision-making for projects. But loopholes need to be fixed, in particular concerning the quality of the assessment process, to make sure that projects that will affect the environment are properly assessed.’
Although the EIA Directive has been in force for 25 years – and amended several times – this initiative is the first major overhaul of the regime. It will take into account emerging challenges such as climate change, resource efficiency, biodiversity and disaster prevention.
The proposed changes include:
1. adjusting the procedure that determines whether an environmental assessment is needed, leaving authorities more time to focus on assessments of major projects with large-scale environmental impacts
2. strengthening rules to ensure better decision-making and avoid environmental damage. ?mpacts from alternative proposals will need more systematic consideration and competent authorities will need to explain the reasons behind their decisions more clearly
3. streamlining the various stages of the EIA process, by introducing timeframes and a new mechanism to ease the process when several assessments are required and several authorities involved.
These proposals are the result of a revision process that included wide consultations and studies on the effectiveness of existing rules and the impact of possible amendments.
The proposed measures will now be considered by the European Parliament and the Council. Once the text is agreed, it will become EU law.
Read the European Commission press release at: LINK
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