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Environmental Impact Assessment
In order to promote the application of EIA in the EU the Commission initiates and contributes to studies, reports and guidance documents. These can be of interest to authorities, developers, consultants, researchers, organisations and to the public.
Reference documents:
- Environmental Impact Assessment of Projects - Rulings of the Court of Justice
- Consolidated version of the EIA Directive
- Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment
- Directive 97/11/EC amending Directive 85/337/EEC
- Directive 2003/35/EC providing for public participation in respect of the drawing up of certain plans and programmes relating to the environment and amending with regard to public participation and access to justice Council Directives 85/337/EEC and 96/61/EC
- Directive 2009/31/EC on the geological storage of carbon dioxide and amending Directives 85/337/EEC, 2000/60/EC, 2001/80/EC, 2004/35/EC, 2006/12/EC, 2008/1/EC and Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006
- UN ECE Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a transboundary context (UN ECE Homepage ESPOO Convention)
- UN ECE Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters (UN ECE Homepage Aarhus Convention)
Commission guidance documents:
- Commissions guidance on Interpretation of project categories in the EIA Directive (pdf ~396K)
- Application of EIA Directive to the rehabilitation of landfills (21/01/2010) (pdf~18K)
- Clarification of the application of Article 2(3) of the EIA Directive (pdf ~526K)
- EIA - Guidance on Screening - 2001
(pdf ~400K) - EIA - Guidance on Scoping - 2001 (pdf ~400K)
- EIA Review Check List - 2001 (pdf ~400K)
- Guidelines on the Assessment of Indirect and Cumulative Impacts as well as Impact interactions
(introduction, full text of the guidelines (pdf ~1,4Mb) - Communication from the Commission - Trans-European networks: Towards an integrated approach
- Commission staff working document - Accompanying document to the Communication from the Commission Trans-European Networks : Toward and integrated approach
Commission reports on the application and effectiveness of the EIA Directive:
- Commission Report - 2009 (COM/2009/0378)
- Commission Report - 2003
(pdf~520K) - Commission Report - 1997
(full text) (pdf ~337Kb)
Recent studies and reports:
- Collection of information and data to support the Impact Assessment study of the review of the EIA Directive
- OPINION of the Committee of the Regions on IMPROVING THE EIA AND SEA DIRECTIVES (15 April 2010)
- Study concerning the report on the application and effectiveness of the EIA Directive - Final report (pdf ~2,6Mb)
- Study Improving the Impact of Environmental Impact Assessment (pdf ~2Mb)
- Final report on "The Relationship between the EIA and SEA Directives project"
- Costs and benefits of the EIA Directive (pdf ~490Kb)
- Evaluation of the EIA Directive (pdf ~1,5Mb)
Other documents
- The outcome of EIA in Denmark. Ministry of Environment /Aalborg University, 2003
By Per Christensen, Lone Kørnøv and Eskild Holm Nielsen.
(EIA - Guidance on Scoping - 2001) (pdf~520K) - A study on cost and benefits in EIA/SEA - 1996
(summary) - IMPEL-report on Interrelation between IPPC, EIA, SEVESO Directives and EMAS Regulation - 1998
(summary - full text) (pdf ~3Mb) - Evaluation of the performance of the EIA process - 1996
(full text volume 1) (pdf~1,2Mb)
(full text volume 2) (pdf~24,5Mb) - Strategy for EIA/SEA Research in EU - 1997
(summary) - Study on the Assessment of Indirect and Cumulative Impacts as well as Impact interactions
Introduction of volume 1 and volume 2, full text of volume 1 (pdf ~940Kb) and volume 2 (pdf ~446Kb)