EU to update EIA Directive

The European Commission has today outlined its plans to change EU legislation on environmental impact assessments (EIAs).

The commission says the proposals for an updated EIA Directive – to replace Directive 2011/92/EU – are intended to lighten administrative burdens and make it easier to assess the potential impacts of major projects, without weakening existing environmental safeguards.

It also claims that current levels of environmental protection will be strengthened, and that businesses should enjoy a more harmonised regulatory framework.

“For the past 25 years, the EIA Directive has helped ensure that environmental considerations are integrated into decision-making for projects. This has improved the sustainability of countless 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,” said environment commissioner Janez Potočnik.

EU figures show that there, on average, are up to 26,000 EIAs across the bloc each year, and that the duration of the process is generally more than 11 months. There is mounting concern among businesses that the existing process is too slow and costly, while the commission acknowledges the current Directive lacks quality standards, does not sufficiently cover emerging environmental issues, such as climate change and resource efficiency, and is poorly implemented across the EU.

Planned changes to the Directive include adjusting the procedure that determines whether EIA is required, so that only projects with significant environmental impacts are subject to an assessment. The commission claims this will mean projects adapted to reduce their impacts and small–scale projects with local impacts will be approved more swiftly at lower cost, leaving authorities more time to focus on assessments of major projects with large-scale environmental impacts.

The new Directive will also require authorities to consider impacts from alternative proposals and to clearly explain the reasons behind their decisions.

Proposals to streamline the various stages of the assessment include introducing timeframes and a new mechanism to ease the process when several EIAs are required and several authorities involved. According to the commission, these changes should provide more legal certainty and accelerate the process, without compromising the quality of the assessment.

Josh Fothergill, IEMA’s lead on EIA, commented: “We welcome the commission’s proposals for updating EIA Directive and I am particularly pleased to see the institute’s contribution to this process recognised by the commission. This is a further example of the influence and the role IEMA members play at shaping the development of key tools used by environment professionals.”