3.6.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
L 152/53
(41)
Despite the existence of established standards ensuring the participation of the public in environmental decisionmaking procedures, which apply fully to projects of common interest, additional measures are still required under this Regulation to ensure the highest possible standards of transparency and public participation in all relevant issues in the permit granting process for projects of common interest.
Where already covered by national rules under the same or higher standards as in this Regulation, the pre-consultation ahead of the permitting procedure should become optional and avoid duplication of legal requirements.
(42)
The correct and coordinated implementation of Directives 2001/42/EC (19) and 2011/92/EU (20) of the European Parliament and of the Council and where applicable, of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters (21), signed in Aarhus on 25 June 1998 (the ‘Aarhus Convention’), and of the Convention on environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context (22), signed in Espoo on 25 February 1991 (the ‘Espoo Convention’), should ensure the harmonisation of the main principles for the assessment of environmental and climate effects, including in a cross-border context.
The Commission has issued guidance to support Member States in defining adequate legislative and non-legislative measures to streamline the environmental assessment procedures for energy infrastructure and to ensure the coherent application of environmental assessment procedures required under Union law for projects of common interest.
Member States should coordinate their assessments of projects of common interest, and provide for joint assessments, where possible.
Member States should be encouraged to exchange best practice and administrative capacity-building in the permit granting processes.
(43)
It is important to streamline and improve the permit granting process, while respecting, to the extent possible and with due regard to the principle of subsidiarity, national competences and procedures for the construction of new energy infrastructure.
Given the urgency of developing energy infrastructures, the simplification of the permit granting process should set a clear time limit for the decision of the relevant authorities regarding the construction of the project.
That time limit should stimulate a more efficient definition and handling of procedures, and should under no circumstances compromise the high standards for the protection of the environment in line with environmental legislation and public participation.
This Regulation should establish maximum time limits.
However, Member States can strive to achieve shorter time limits where feasible and, in particular, as regards projects such as smart grids, which may not require as complex a permitting process as that for transmission infrastructure.
The competent authorities should be responsible for ensuring compliance with the time limits.
(44)
Member States should be able to include in comprehensive decisions, where appropriate, decisions taken in the context of negotiations with individual landowners to grant access to, ownership of, or a right to occupy, property in the context of spatial planning, which determines the general land use of a defined region, including other developments such as highways, railways, buildings and nature protection areas and which is not undertaken for the specific purpose of the planned project and granting of operational permits.
In the context of the permit granting process, a project of common interest should be able to include related infrastructure to the extent that it is essential for the construction or functioning of the project.
This Regulation, in particular the provisions on permit granting, public participation and the implementation of projects of common interest, should apply without prejudice to Union and international law, including provisions to protect the environment and human health, and provisions adopted under the Common Fisheries Policy and Integrated Maritime Policy, in particular Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (23).
(45)
The costs of the development, construction, operation and maintenance of projects of common interest should in general be borne fully by the users of the infrastructure.
The cost allocation should ensure that end-users are not disproportionately burdened, especially if that could lead to energy poverty.
Projects of common interest should be eligible for cross-border cost allocation where an assessment of market demand, or of the expected effects on tariffs, indicates that costs cannot be expected to be recovered by the tariffs paid by the infrastructure users.
(19) Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (OJ L 197, 21.7.2001, p. 30).
(20) Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (OJ L 26, 28.1.2012, p. 1).
(21) OJ L 124, 17.5.2005, p. 4. (22) OJ C 104, 24.4.1992, p. 7.
(23) Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 establishing a framework for maritime spatial planning (OJ L 257, 28.8.2014, p. 135).