Voorzitter Raad van EU Litouwen opent onderhandelingen met EP over richtlijn milieueffectrapportage (en)

On 30 October in Brussels the Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER I) mandated the Lithuanian EU Council Presidency to open negotiations with the European Parliament on the Proposal for a Directive on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment.

The main purpose of the proposed legislative act amending Directive 2011/92/EU, known as 'Environmental Impact Assessment' (EIA) Directive, is to streamline the environmental assessments, strengthen the quality elements of the EIA process and to enhance policy coherence creating synergies with other EU law instruments.

The Chair of COREPER I, ambassador Arūnas Vinčiūnas noted that this dossier is one of the Lithuanian Presidency’s priorities in the field of environment.

“We are aware of the complexity of the dossier, however we are of the opinion that a rational solution improving the quality and compatibility of EIA processes in Member States and ensuring a better integration of the EIA results into the decision-making procedures could be achieved within the upcoming months,” said the Lithuanian ambassador.

The Presidency presented to the Committee the compromise text which has received wide support from delegations and will be the basis for the first informal trilogue with the European Parliament, scheduled for 5 November.

Background:

The Commission submitted the above-mentioned proposal on 23 March 2012.The Environment Committee of the European Parliament voted on this Proposal 11 July 2013.

The European Parliament, at its plenary session on 9 October 2013, adopted 78 amendments to the Commission's proposal.