A5n Legal and policy frameworks for SEA in Europe
Ursula Platzer, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, Austria
David Aspinwall, European Comission – DG Environment, Brussels
Key issues to be addressed
The workshop will concentrate on the legal and policy framework in Europe for SEA. The main driving force for SEA in Europe is Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Assessment of the Effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (SEA Directive). The SEA Directive is an important tool at EU level for integrating environmental considerations into programmes and plans. The SEA Directive was to be implemented by the Member States by 21 July 2004. Another important tool is the UN-ECE Protocol on strategic environmental assessment to the Espoo Convention on environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context (SEA Protocol).
The objective of the Directive is to provide for a high level of protection of the environment and to contribute to the integration of environmental considerations into the preparation and adoption of plans and programmes with a view to promoting sustainable development. The Directive determines a minimum environmental assessment framework, which would set out the broad principles of the environmental assessment systems and leave the details to the 25 Member States, having regard to the principle of subsidiarity. The Directive’s requirements should either be integrated into existing procedures in Member States or incorporated in specifically established procedures. The UN-ECE Protocol is some ways wider than the Directive, it explicitly covers policies, legislation, as well as programmes and plans but with rather different requirements for polices and legislation. The SEA Protocol follows in principle the approach of the Directive in providing a framework for integrating environmental considerations into the preparation and adoption of plans and programmes and, to the extent appropriate, policies and legislation. The Protocol is not in force yet. Therefore the workshop will have its main focus on the Directive.
The session will try to give an overview of the implementation of the Directive, its linked legal and policy frameworks and related problems concerning its effectiveness, practical examples of ways of applying its requirements, methodological and procedural issues based on practical examples, and lessons learned. Closely related to the legislation and policy framework is the issue of administrative systems and practices. Therefore we would like to discuss how administrative structures can positively and/or negatively influence the effectiveness of the implementation of the Directive and what influence authorities have on the practical effectiveness of SEA.
The focus of the session will be the discussion based on three key-presentations. The presentations should end with clear recommendations on aspects which seem to be relevant for the issues presented. After the presentations an intensive discussion is planned. For the discussion the participants are invited to put forward short abstracts, which contain examples, ideas, solutions, thoughts, questions and recommendations concerning the topics above. These abstracts would serve as an essential input to the discussion. Depending on the number of participants, the working group will break into very small groups in order to enable successful information exchange and discussion.