Brussels, 06/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - How could the provisions of the 25-year-old directive 85/337/EC on the assessment of the impact on the environment of certain public and private projects (the EIA directive) be improved to take account of the changes that have taken place in EU legislation and policies and in the caselaw of the Court of Justice of the EU, and to simplify assessment procedures?
The European Commission has its own ideas but would like to gather as many views as possible on this issue. Therefore, it launched a public consultation exercise on 28 June. All interested parties are invited to respond to a questionnaire on whether the EIA directive should be amended, the measures to be considered and the areas for improvement.
Interested parties are asked for their views on the screening of projects for EIA, the quality of the EIA process, the harmonisation of assessment requirements among member states, transboundary difficulties when activities affect more than one member state, the role to be played by the environmental authorities, and development of synergies with other EU environmental legislation and policies, such as climate change, resource efficiency and biodiversity.
The consultation document is available on line at:
http: //ec.europa.ec/environment/consultations/eia/htm (A.N./transl.rt)