Comparative practice - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 319

In 1994, Poland became an associate partner of the EU. This requires Poland to
incrementally change its laws and statutes to bring them in line with those of the EU.
Since then, two key regulations have been enacted: the Act of 9 November 2000 on
Access to Information on the Environment and its Protection and on EIA, and the
Environmental Protection Law (EPL) Act of 27 April 2001. These include new
requirements for screening and scoping, expand the requirements for public consultation
in EIA and shift the emphasis of EIA from the preparation of a report to the process as a
whole (Wiszniewska et al. 2002).
The new system is much more like that of the EU, but includes some interesting
variants:
• EIA is required for two types of projects: group I projects that require EIA in all cases,
and group II projects that may require EIA. The former are linked to the permit
requirements of other acts, and include mineral extraction, groundwater abstraction
and flood control, restructuring of rural land holdings, and motorways. The latter are
judged on e.g. whether the project requires the establishment of a restricted use area,
whether it may cause transboundary impacts and whether relevant environmental
bodies feel that it should require EIA.
• The EIS must include a description of alternatives to the proposed project, including the
“do nothing” option and the option that would be the most advantageous for the
environment; an indication of whether it is necessary to establish a restricted-use area;
an analysis of probable social conflicts related to the project and proposals for impact
monitoring.
• The competent authority must review the quality of the EIS to ensure that it complies
with its interim decision on the scope of the report and the requirements of the EPL
Act, and that it provides a sufficient basis for issuing the decision and informing
society about the project. The Handbook on Environmental Impact Assessment
Procedures in Poland (Wiszniewska et al. 2002) gives criteria for how this can be
done.
• An EIA may still be required during the procedure of granting a building consent, but
the Handbook suggests ways of avoiding duplication of EIAs.
It is still too early to determine the effectiveness of these changes, but clearly Poland has
made great efforts to improve its EIA system. On the other hand, the OECD (2003)
Environmental Review of Poland suggests that the country still faces major challenges
before it can achieve convergence with EU Member States on environmental standards.
Priority issues include pollution prevention, wastewater treatment, waste management,
biodiversity and landscape protection. The report suggests that Poland needs to invest up
to 2.7 per cent of GDP annually for 10 years simply to comply with EU accession rules,
and recommends the wider use of economic instruments, implementation of the “polluter
pays” principle and stronger enforcement of environmental regulations.
10.7 The Netherlands
The Netherlands, with its small area of densely populated and highly industrialized land,
has developed a worldwide reputation for powerful and progressive environmental