Article 1 Subject matter and scope
1. This Directive shall apply to the permit-granting procedures required in order to authorise the implementation of: (a) projects that are part of pre-identified sections of the core network as listed in the Annex; (b) other projects on the core network corridors, as identified pursuant to Article 44(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013, with a total cost exceeding EUR 300 000 000, with the exception of projects exclusively related to telematic applications, new technologies and innovation within the meaning of Articles 31 and 33 of that Regulation. This Directive shall also apply to public procurements in cross-border projects falling within the scope of this Directive. 2. Member States may decide to apply this Directive to other projects on the core network and comprehensive network, including projects exclusively related to telematic applications, new technologies and innovation referred to in paragraph 1. Member States shall notify their decision to the Commission.
Article 2 Definitions
For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions apply: (1) ‘authorising decision’ means the decision or a set of decisions, which may be of an administrative nature, taken simultaneously or successively by an authority or by authorities of a Member State, not including administrative and judicial appeal authorities, under a national legal system and administrative law that determine whether or not a project promoter is entitled to implement the project on the geographical area concerned, without prejudice to any decision taken in the context of an administrative or judicial appeal procedure; (2) ‘permit-granting procedure’ means any procedure that has to be followed related to an individual project falling within the scope of this Directive in order to obtain the authorising decision as required by the authority or authorities of a Member State, under Union or national law, with the exception of urban or land use planning, of procedures related to the award of public procurements, and of steps undertaken at strategic level that do not refer to a specific project, such as strategic environmental assessment, public budgetary planning, as well as national or regional transport plans; (3) ‘project’ means a proposal for the construction, adaptation or modification of a defined section of the transport infrastructure which aims to improve the capacity, safety and efficiency of that infrastructure and of which the implementation has to be approved by means of an authorising decision; (4) ‘cross-border project’ means a project covering a cross-border section between two or more Member States; (5) ‘project promoter’ means the applicant for authorisation of the implementation of a project or the public authority which initiates a project; (6) ‘designated authority’ means the authority which is the point of contact for the project promoter and which facilitates the efficient and structured processing of permit-granting procedures in accordance with this Directive; (7) ‘joint authority’ means an authority established by mutual agreement between two or more Member States to facilitate the permit-granting procedures related to cross-border projects, including joint authorities established by designated authorities where those designated authorities have been empowered by Member States to establish joint authorities.
Article 3 Priority status
1. Member States shall endeavour to ensure that all authorities, including the designated authority, involved in the permit-granting procedure, excluding courts and tribunals, give priority to projects falling within the scope of this Directive. 2. Where specific permit-granting procedures for priority projects exist under national law, Member States shall, without prejudice to the objectives, requirements and time-limits of this Directive, ensure that projects falling within the scope of this Directive are handled under those procedures. This shall not prevent Member States from testing specific permit-granting procedures on a limited number of projects, in order to evaluate their potential extension to other projects, without having to apply such procedures to projects falling within the scope of this Directive. 3. This Article shall be without prejudice to any budgetary decisions.
Article 4 Designated Authority
1. By 10 August 2023, each Member State shall designate, at the appropriate administrative level, the authorities that are to act as a designated authority. 2. A Member State may, where relevant, designate different authorities as the designated authority depending on the project or category of projects, transport mode, or the geographical area. In such a case, the Member State shall ensure that there is only one designated authority for a given project and for a given permit-granting procedure. 3. Member States shall take all necessary measures to provide project promoters with easily available information about the identity of the designated authority for a given project. 4. Member States may empower the designated authority to take the authorising decision. When empowered to take the authorising decision in accordance with the first subparagraph, the designated authority shall verify that all the permits, decisions and opinions necessary for the adoption of the authorising decision have been obtained and shall notify the authorising decision to the project promoter. 5. Where the designated authority is not empowered to take the authorising decision, Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the project promoter is notified of the adoption of the authorising decision. 6. Member States may empower the designated authority to establish indicative time-limits for different intermediary steps of the permit-granting procedure in accordance with Article 5(1), without prejudice to the four-year time-limit referred to in that paragraph. 7. The designated authority shall: (a) be the point of contact for information for the project promoter and for other relevant authorities involved in the procedure leading to the authorising decision for a given project; (b) provide the project promoter, where required to do so under national law, with the detailed application outline referred to in Article 6(4), including information on the indicative time-limits relating to the permit-granting procedures, in accordance with the four-year time-limit referred to in Article 5(1); (c) oversee the timeframe of the permit-granting procedure, and in particular record any extension of the time-limit referred to in Article 5(4); (d) if requested, provide guidance to the project promoter concerning the submission of all relevant information and documents, including all the permits, decisions and opinions which have to be obtained and provided for the authorising decision. The designated authority may also provide guidance to the project promoter as to what additional information and/or documents should be delivered in the event that the notification referred to in Article 6(1) has been rejected. 8. Paragraph 7 is without prejudice to the competence of any other authorities involved in the permit-granting procedure and to the possibility for the project promoter to contact the individual authorities for the specific permits, decisions or opinions which form part of the authorising decision.
Article 5 Duration of the permit-granting procedure
1. Member States shall provide for a permit-granting procedure, including the deadlines for that procedure which shall not exceed four years from the start of the permit-granting procedure. Member States may adopt necessary measures in order to break down the available period into different steps in accordance with Union and national law. 2. The four-year period referred to in paragraph 1 shall be without prejudice to obligations arising from international and Union law and shall not include periods necessary to undertake administrative and judicial appeal procedures and to seek judicial remedies before a court or tribunal, as well as any periods necessary to implement any resulting decisions or remedies. 3. The four-year period referred to in paragraph 1 shall be without prejudice to the right of a Member State to provide that the permit-granting procedure is to be finalised by the adoption of a specific act of national legislation, in which case, the procedure for adoption of that act may, by way of derogation from paragraph 1, exceed the four year period provided that the preparatory work, on the basis of which the national legislative act is adopted, is concluded within that period. The preparatory work shall be considered to end when the specific act of national legislation is introduced to the national parliament. 4. Member States shall adopt the necessary measures to ensure that, in duly justified cases, an appropriate extension of the four-year period referred to in paragraph 1 may be granted. The duration of the extension shall be determined on a case-by-case basis, be duly justified and be limited to the purpose of completing the permit-granting procedure and delivering the authorising decision. When such an extension has been granted, the project promoter shall be informed of the reasons for granting it. A further extension may be granted once, under the same conditions. 5. Member States shall not be held responsible where the four-year period referred to in paragraph 1, as extended in accordance with paragraph 4, is not complied with where the delay incurred is due to the project promoter.
Article 6 Organisation of the permit-granting procedure
1. The project promoter shall notify the project to the designated authority or, where appropriate, to the joint authority established in accordance with Article 7(2). The notification of the project by the project promoter, shall serve as the start of the permit-granting procedure. 2. In order to facilitate the assessment of the maturity of the project, Member States may define the level of detail of information and the relevant documents to be provided by the project promoter when notifying a project. If the project is not mature, the notification shall be rejected by a duly justified decision not later than four months after the receipt of the notification. 3. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that project promoters receive general information as a guide to notification, adapted, where relevant, to the mode of transport concerned, containing information about the permits, decisions and opinions that may be required for the implementation of a project. That information shall, for each permit, decision or opinion, include the following: (a) general information about the material scope and the level of detail of the information to be submitted by the project promoter; (b) applicable time-limits or, if there are no such time-limits, indicative time-limits; and (c) details of the authorities and stakeholders normally involved in consultations linked to the different permits, decisions and opinions. That information shall be easily accessible to all relevant project promoters, in particular through electronic or physical information portals. 4. In order to facilitate successful notification, Member States may require the designated authority to establish, upon request by the project promoter, a detailed application outline comprising the following information customised for the individual project: (a) the individual stages of the procedure and applicable time-limits or, if there are no such time-limits, indicative time-limits; (b) the material scope and the level of detail of the information to be submitted by the project promoter; (c) a list of permits, decisions and opinions to be obtained by the project promoter during the permit-granting procedure, in accordance with Union and national law; (d) the details of the authorities and stakeholders to be involved in connection with the respective obligations, including during the formal phase of the public consultation. 5. The detailed application outline shall remain valid during the permit-granting procedure. Any amendment to the detailed application outline shall be duly justified. 6. The designated authority may provide the project promoter, on request, with the information supplementing the elements referred to in paragraph 4. 7. When the project promoter has submitted the complete project application file, the authorising decision shall be adopted within the time-limit referred to in Article 5(1). 8. Authorities involved in the permit-granting procedure shall notify the designated authority that the required permits, decisions, opinions, or the authorising decision, have been issued.
Article 7 Coordination of cross-border permit-granting procedures
1. Member States shall ensure, for projects that concern two or more Member States, that the designated authorities of those Member States cooperate with a view to coordinating their timetables and agreeing on a joint schedule concerning the permit-granting procedure. 2. For cross-border projects, a joint authority may be established. 3. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the European Coordinators designated in accordance with Article 45 of Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013 receive information on the permit-granting procedures and that the European Coordinators may facilitate contacts between the designated authorities in the context of the permit-granting procedures for projects that concern two or more Member States. 4. Member States shall, if the time-limit referred to in Article 5(1) is not observed, and upon request, provide information to the European Coordinators concerned about the measures taken or planned to be taken in order to enable the permit-granting procedure to be concluded with the least possible delay.
Article 8 Public procurement in cross-border projects
1. When the procurement procedures are conducted by a joint entity in a cross-border project, Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the joint entity applies the national law of one Member State and, by way of derogation from Directives 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU, that law shall be determined in accordance with point (a) of Article 39(5) of Directive 2014/24/EU or point (a) of Article 57(5) of Directive 2014/25/EU, as applicable, unless an agreement between the participating Member States provides otherwise. Such an agreement shall, in any case, provide for the application of the national law of one Member State to the procurement procedures conducted by a joint entity. 2. For public procurement conducted by a subsidiary of a joint entity, the Member States concerned shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the subsidiary applies the national law of one Member State. In this respect, the Member States concerned may decide that the subsidiary is to apply the national law applicable to the joint entity.
Article 9 Transitional provisions
1. This Directive shall not apply to projects for which the permit-granting procedures started before 10 August 2023. 2. Article 8 shall only apply to such contracts for which the call for competition has been sent, or, in cases where a call for competition is not foreseen, where the contracting authority or contracting entity commenced the procurement procedure, after 10 August 2023. 3. Article 8 shall not apply to a joint entity set up before 9 August 2021, if the procurement procedures of that entity continue to be governed by the law applicable to its procurements on that date.
Article 10 Reporting
1. For the first time by 10 February 2027, and at regular intervals thereafter, the Commission shall report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the implementation of this Directive and on its results. 2. The report shall be based on information to be provided by Member States every two years and for the first time by 10 August 2026, concerning the number of permit-granting procedures falling within the scope of this Directive, the average length of the permit-granting procedures, the number of permit-granting procedures exceeding the time-limit and the establishment of any joint authority during the reporting period.
Article 11 Transposition
1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 10 August 2023. They shall immediately inform the Commission thereof. When Member States adopt those measures, they shall contain a reference to this Directive or be accompanied by such a reference on the occasion of their official publication. The methods of making such reference shall be laid down by Member States. 2. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the text of the main measures of national law which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive.
Article 12 Entry into force
This Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union . This Directive is addressed to the Member States.