Comparative practice - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 318

effective public participation; and lack of consideration of alternatives (Wang et al.
2003). The changes of 2003 may redress some of these problems.
10.6 Poland
Poland, like the other countries in transition, is undergoing a rapid evolution in
environmental policy, with three clearly distinguishable phases in the last 25 years.
In the latter days of Communism, the government's policy of borrowing from the
West was backfiring, the Communist regime was providing only the most basic services
and environmental issues were being virtually ignored (Fisher 1992). Several areas of
Poland were subject to severe pollution, causing widespread concern. In response to this,
the government enacted the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) in 1980. This was
subsequently strengthened through various amendments and by the T & CP Act of 1984.
Under this system, an EIA began when a developer asked a local environmental authority
whether an EIA was needed. If it was, the authority drew up a list of suitable consultants
to carry out the work. Once the chosen consultant had completed the EIS, consultation
with the public might be carried out but was not mandatory. If the EIS was accepted by
the environmental authority, then the local planning authority could issue a “location
indication” which listed alternative locations for the project. Based on this, the developer
chose a site and continued to design the project, and the environmental consultants
prepared a final EIS. The developer delivered the EIS along with a planning application
to the local planning authority, which again consulted with the local environmental
authority before making a decision about the project. Construction consent required yet a
third EIS to accompany the technical design of the project.
This system was criticized for lacking screening criteria, being cumbersome and
redundant with multiple EISs prepared for each project, having minimal procedures for
public participation and for resource constraints on the commission that reviewed the
EISs (Jendroska & Sommer 1994). It also could not deal with the huge social and
economic changes that Poland went through after the overthrow of the Communist
regime in late 1989:
There are no more economic plans and central planners, the currency is
convertible and the best technology accessible, and the whole economy is
being privatised. Moreover, administrative arrangements have been
redesigned in order to create a strong central agency as an environmental
watchdog…[but] old industry is still operating. The observed
improvement of environmental records since 1989 is only a side effect of
the recession…EIA law in Poland still reflects two characteristic features
of the Communist regime: an aversion to getting the general public
involved in decision-making, and a reluctance to developing procedural
rules for dispute settlement. This means that this legislation not only is not
efficient enough from the “environmental” point of view, but also does
not match the political and economic transformation towards an open and
democratic society and a free market. (Jendroska & Sommer 1994)