
The first Environmental Impact Assessment Directive (85/337/EEC) came into force in 1985. The Directive has been updated four times to bring it in line with the EU’s international commitments and other legal developments. Subsequent amendments was codified into a single new act: Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, amended by Directive 214/52/EU of 16 April 2014 – farther EIA Directive. Click the link below for the full text of the EIA Directive that is currently in force.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02011L0092-20140515
a brief introduction to the EIA system in the European Union, along with the legal basis and guidelines, can be found here:
While browsing the European Commission's website above, it is worth noting the "Publications" folder, including publications containing guides to selected aspects of EIA, as well as the interpretation of the provisions of the EIA Directive contained in the rulings of the European Court of Justice, collected in the 2022 publication titled: "Environmental impact assessment of projects. Rulings of the Court of Justice of the European union".
The EIA Directive defines the project very broadly (Article 1 (2a)), as:
while the annexes to the Directive list the types of activities and types of projects that are subject to a full (Annex 1) or partial (Annex 2) EIA procedure. Annex 1 and Annex 2 of the Directives are cited at the end of this article.
The full EIA procedure is required for the various projects such as:
For other projects, including urban or industrial development projects, roads, tourism development and canalisation and flood relief works, it is up to individual EU Member States to decide if there will be an EIA on a case-by-case basis or by setting specific criteria (such as the location, size or type of project). This procedure is commonly called screening scoping procedure.
In the process of assessing the impact of the planned project on the environment, it is also necessary to refer to regulations governing such aspects as water protection under the Water Framework Directive, nature protection, in accordance with the so-called Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive, and a number of others.
The basic catalog of EU regulations that are taken into account in the EIA process are:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32009L0147
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:01992L0043-20130701
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0380
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:02000L0060-20141120
Particularly relevant in the context of obtaining funds from the EU and from financing entities such as, the World Bank, the European Development Bank, etc., are the issues:
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