Brussels, 30/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Good but could do better. The European Commission proposal to revise the EU directive on impact assessment of certain public and private environment projects (directive 85/337/EEC, the so-called EIA directive) presented on 26 October (see EUROPE 10720) was welcomed by environmental NGOs meeting at the European Environmental Agency (EEA) and the Justice and Environment Association (J&E). Nonetheless, they consider a few key areas still need to be tackled. The two federations considered that in many respects, this proposal is an improvement on the existing directive because it tackles the shortcomings that they have been continually highlighting for a number of years. Nonetheless, they still believe there is a lot to do to rectify all the weaknesses contained in this legislation, particularly with regard to public participation in the process.
Among the positive points to be welcomed, the NGOs mentioned the specific character of the criteria to work out if a project has to be subject to an impact assessment by way of new aspects such as the impact of climate change and more comprehensive analysis of environmental impacts. The EEA and the J&E point out that once the project is up and running, the proposal demands that the environmental impact is subject to monitoring, which is a good thing, although this is not demanded for all the different projects.
Jeremy Wates, the Secretary General of the EEA explained that for a number of years, companies developing projects avoided impact assessments by slicing projects into small bits. He said that the EEA is pleased that the Commission proposal tackles this problem and examines the cumulative impact of multiple projects by the same or different project developers. Nonetheless, he is highly critical of the fact that the proposal does not attempt to tackle the anomaly of a project developer not being obliged to guarantee an impact assessment before the project is launched.
The NGOs also regret that the text proposed does not contain any provision preventing the continuation of projects whilst awaiting a legal decision, which subsequently infringes the Aarhus Convention on public access to the decision-making process and legal address (concluded in 1998 by the UN Economic Commission for Europe). This is despite the fact that even the European Court of Justice and the Aarhus Convention compliance committee said that this matter should be rectified, pointed out Thomas Alge, the president of the J&E Association.
He also added that it is unacceptable that NGOs are not explicitly allowed to take part in project assessment procedures and question them. He believes that this also infringes the international obligations of the EU and member states. (AN/transl.fl)