Environmental impact assessment: new simplified EU directive into force
The new European Directive on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), into force since last May 15th, will provide a better protection of the environment and will simplify existing administrative burdens in line with the European Commission's drive for smarter regulation. The previous Directive codified as Directive 2011/92/EU results to be applied to a wide range of public and private projects since the first entry to force, twenty-five years ago and has already been amended three times. The new regulation intends to focus on resource efficiency, climate change and risk reduction that proved to be among the risks and the challenges of the last years. Among the main novelties introduced: Member States now have a mandate to simplify their various environmental assessment procedures, timeframes are introduced for the different stages of environmental assessments, simplification of the screening procedure to determine whether or not an EIA is required, EIA reports must be clearer for the public, developers will be obliged to take steps to avoid, prevent or reduce negative effects on the environment if entailed by the projects. Member States have to apply these rules as from 16 May 2017 at the latest, and they also need to communicate to the Commission the national legislation adopted in order to comply with the Directive.