Investment activities are subject to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and permitting procedures (planning, construction, integrated). Government draft law amends Act No. 24/2006 Coll. on the assessment of impacts on the #environment.
Changes in EIA processes bring several significant novelties. The first major step is a clear separation of the individual processes, namely the fact-finding procedure (screening), the determination of the scope of the assessment (resulting in the Assessment Report) and the environmental impact assessment process itself. After the new procedure, only the last stage remains the administrative procedure regime (limited to a maximum of six months) with procedural participation of the public concerned and the possibility of appeals. The outcome of this procedure is a final opinion with the nature of a decision.
The screening process is now conceived as a purely technical procedure with no procedural involvement of the public. The outcome is to be a professional determination of whether a proposed activity or change to an activity, as defined in Annex 8, Part B, has the potential to cause significant adverse environmental effects and thus whether it should be subject to the environmental impact assessment process. The dossiers entitled ‘Intention’ and ‘Notification of change to the proposed activity’ are retained for the screening processes only. Activities that represent renovation without change of capacity parameters or installation of BAT (Best Available Technologies) reducing negative environmental impacts are not subject to the investigation procedure.
The public will be informed about everything via Enviroportal.sk. At the same time, a new option is introduced for the proponent, who can voluntarily apply for an environmental impact assessment without a prior inquiry procedure. A new way of delivering all information to all participants in the environmental impact assessment procedure is also introduced, namely by public notice instead of individual delivery to each participant.
