## 3 Literature Review
### History of EIA: Emergence, Evolution, Implementation
EIA is vulnerable to subjectivity, which can lead stakeholders, evaluators, and public authorities to focus more on cost-benefit analysis and practical aspects of financial constraints and short-term timeframes, to the detriment of long-term environmental considerations [95]. The common objective of all these regulations is to eliminate or prevent pollution at source and, where this cannot be achieved, to reduce and eliminate contamination. This is the main objective of environmental action plans and strategies that, together with \"sustainable development\", are among the basic principles of the EU's environmental policy. To achieve the SD objectives, the \"polluter pays\" principle has been defined as a cornerstone. In the given context, the EIA procedure can be seen as the mechanism through which SD goals may be included; however, the inclusion of SDGs in the procedure is seen as contextual in some countries without producing an impact on SD [3,96]. In many articles, the SDGs and EA are referred to from the perspective of how these two concepts relate to sustainable development or sustainability. So far, several studies in the field of environmental impact assessment have used one of the related environmental assessment tools. As a result of the literature review, examples of EIA and other tool applications in Romania are summarized in Table 3.  
Numerous studies have been identified that had the effectiveness of the EIA process as a central study objective; however, only a small number of studies have addressed and elaborated bibliometric analyses regarding the evolution of the EIA process, with many studies focusing on addressing this concept through literature review [39,66,73,82,97,98,89]. This study analyzed the evolution of the EIA concept, considering first of all, the emergence and evolution of the concept, where a distinction was made between EIA-based and SD-based processes. The interconnection between EIA and SD is an emerging field of research, characterized by a lack of scientific literature. Consequently, 38 articles were analyzed to identify the types of linkages between the EIA and SD. The analyzed articles were selected and classified into several groups (based on the type of assessment), as shown in Table 3. The analysis of these articles indicates that only a limited number of them address environmental assessment based on sustainable development objectives, thereby underscoring the practical difficulty of integrating environmental, social, and economic factors in a manner that reflects the interaction between the two processes, with the objective of minimizing negative effects and optimizing the concordance of the processes. A review of the extant literature reveals a tendency for EIA studies to evolve from general procedural descriptions to operational models, a trend that is not observed in other types of evaluations. Due to the emerging nature of the field, the literature provides an overview of the linkages between EIM and SDGs, but the literature review did not reveal any insights [7]. The selected examples presented below are remarkable events reflected in Romanian media and, therefore, are very well known to the public. The Rosia Montana mining project is a complex process marked by controversy and intense debate. The implementation of the EIA was subject to criticism from civil society, which challenged the validity of the impact studies and public consultation procedures. Public participation was a central element of the debates, highlighting the importance of transparency and access to information in environmental decision-making [12]. Public consultations provide a framework for dialogue between developers, authorities, and local communities, highlighting the need to integrate social and economic considerations into environmental impact assessment processes. Public input into the decisions of the partiesinvolved is significant, generating project modifications and imposing higher standards of environmental protection.