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The European Commission has launched a public consultation
on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) legislation of
the EU.
EIAs are carried out to make sure that the environmental
impact of projects is taken into account before final decisions
are made. Plans for roads, waste installations, power stations
and a range of other projects must go through an EIA.
The original EIA Directive is now 25 years old and needs
a revamp, according to the Commission. EU policy and case
law from the European Court need to be reflected better in
the law on EIAs - and the Commission wants to see a streamlining
of assessment procedures, where possible.
The consultation will run until 24 September 2010
and will feed into a revised Directive planned for next year.
More detail
The consultation covers issues such as the screening of
projects for EIA, the quality of the EIA process, the harmonisation
of assessment requirements among Member States, cross-border
difficulties when projects affect more than one Member State,
the role of the environmental authorities and development
of synergies with other EU policies, such as climate change
and biodiversity.
The findings of the consultation will feed into a Commission
review next year. All interested parties - citizens, stakeholders
and organisations involved in environmental assessments -
are invited to respond to the public consultation by 24 September
2010. The questionnaire is available in all 22 Community languages.
Commissioner for Environment Janez Potocnik said - "Environmental
Impact Assessments are one of our most important tools, because
if the proper consultations are carried out when a project
is launched, there is a much smaller risk of legal action
at the end of the process. But we need to make sure that the
form they take is suitable for a Europe with 27 countries.
So I am looking forward to input from all sides, allowing
us to examine these issues carefully and to work out what
new measures might be needed."
Background
Environmental Impact Assessments are designed to ensure
that the environmental implications of decisions are taken
into account before the decisions are made. Environmental
assessment can be undertaken for individual projects, on the
basis of Directive 85/337/EEC, as amended (known as 'Environmental
Impact Assessment' - EIA Directive).
The main principle of the EIA Directive is to ensure that
projects likely to have significant effects on the environment
are made subject to an environmental assessment, prior to
their authorisation. The EIA Directive has been in force since
1985 and applies to a wide range of defined public and private
projects, such as power stations, roads, railway lines, waste
installations, industrial installations and energy infrastructure.
More information
Download the consultation document - Click
Here
For more information on the EIA Directive - Click
Here
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