WRITTEN QUESTION E-2192/98

by James Elles (PPE) to the Commission

(14 July 1998)

Subject: Directive 85/337/EEC

The environment now plays an important role in the lives of European citizens and is influenced to a considerable degree by EU policies.

1. Will the Commission indicate whether all countries have ratified Directive 85/337/EEC(1)?

2. Are all Member State authorities aware that national planning authorities have to carry out the necessary assessments before large building works begin?

3. Is the Commission satisfied that this Directive is being fairly implemented in all Member States?

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission

(17 September 1998)

Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment(2) has been implemented by all Member States.

The Commission is not in a position to make any statement as to whether all Member States authorities are aware of the necessity to carry out an environmental impact assessment in certain cases. The Commission can only assume that authorities of each Member State are at least aware of the measures taken to implement the Directive within that Member State, as any other legislation, and act accordingly.

A distinction should be made between cases where certain provisions of the Directive have not been implemented in national law or have been implemented in an incorrect manner, and cases where the issue at stake is not the conformity of national legislation with the Directive but rather whether the environmental effects of a specific project have been assessed in accordance with the Directive. As regards non-conformity cases, the Commission will ensure that the relevant national legislation is completed or amended in order to be in conformity with the Directive. Infringement proceedings are at present under way against six Member States for non-conformity of their implementing legislation (Germany, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Portugal).

In addition to these cases, a relatively high number of complaints, alleging incorrect application of the Directive, have been lodged with the Commission. As already mentioned, these cases do not concern the conformity of national legislation with the Directive but its application to specific projects. The mere fact that numerous complaints are lodged does not necessarily mean that the Directive is particularly badly implemented in the Member States concerned. Indeed hundreds or thousands of projects could be subjected to an environmental impact assessment each year in the Member State concerned. Moreover, it regularly happens that several complaints concern the same project. Therefore, the number of projects for which a violation of the Directive is claimed could still be very low in relation to the amount of projects for which no complaint is lodged with the Commission. It is also to be noted that many complaints criticise the quality of the environmental impact statement, a matter on which the Directive leaves a wide margin of appreciation to Member States authorities. It is therefore difficult to establish in such cases that the Directive has been infringed.

Lastly, the Commission would point out that Council Directive 97/11/EC of 3 March 1997 amending Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment(3) addresses issues where experience showed that Member States had difficulties in correctly implementing the 1985 Directive.

(1) OJ L 175, 5.7.1985, p. 40.

(2) OJ L 175, 5.7.1985.

(3) OJ L 73, 14.3.1997.