Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
restricted to projects only (Wood 1988). In the absence of a Europe-wide SEA
requirement, several European Member States established SEA systems starting in the
late 1980s: these are discussed in Therivel & Partidario (1996) and Kleinschmidt &
Wagner (1998).
After 25 years of discussion and negotiations between the European Member States,
the European Commission finally agreed on Directive 2001/42/EC “on the assessment of
the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment” (EC 2001) on 21 July
2001. The full text of the Directive is given in Appendix 2. The Directive became
operational on 21 July 2004. Like the EIA Directive, the SEA Directive does not have a
direct effect in individual European Member States, but instead needs to be interpreted
into regulations in each Member State. Section 12.4 discusses how this has been done in
England.
Directive 2001/42/EC requires SEA for plans and programmes (not policies) that:
1. are subject to preparation and/or adoption by an authority and
2. are required by legislative, regulatory or administrative provisions and
3. are likely to have significant environmental effects and
4. (a) are prepared for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, industry, transport, waste
management, water management, telecommunications, tourism, T&CP or land use and
set t h e framework for development consent of projects listed in the EIA or
(b) in view of the likely effect on sites, require an appropriate assessment under
the Habitats Directive or
(c) are other plans and programmes determined by Member States to set the
framework for future development consent of projects and
5. are begun after 21 July 2004 or are completed after 21 July 2006.
Just what plans and programmes are affected by this complex definition varies from
Member State to Member State, and will probably only become clear in time through
precedent and lawsuits.
Box 12.2 summarizes the SEA Directive's requirements. Draft plans and programmes
must be accompanied by an “environmental report” that discusses the current baseline,
the likely effects of the plan or programme and alternative options, how the negative
effects have been minimized and proposed monitoring arrangements. The public must be
consulted on the proposed plan or programme together with the environmental report,
and the authority preparing the plan or programme has to show how the information in
the report and the comments of consultees have been taken on board. European guidance
(EC 2003) gives more details on some aspects of the Directive.
Box 12.2 Requirements of the EU SEA Directive
Preparing an environmental report in which the likely significant
effects on the environment of implementing the plan, and reasonable
alternatives taking into account the objectives and geographical scope of
the plan, are identified, described and evaluated. The information to be
given is (Article 5 and Annex I):
(a) An outline of the contents main objectives of the plan and relationship with other
Search WWH ::




Custom Search