Environmental Impact Assessments

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) were developed since the 1960ies to serve as tools to predict environmental pressures of projects. In the EU, the "EIA Directive" has been in place for 25 years. It provides a framework within which each member state can find its own ways to implement EIA legislation that is coherent with the scopes and minimum standards of community law. This subsidiarity of the EIA directive creates a conflict between harmonisation and autonomy: Too stringent regimes will fail to acknowledge local environmental conditions; too loose ones will create different economic conditions under which companies should operate in different EU member states. This book seeks to evaluate the degree of divergence in EIA laws between individual member states: A comparative study on the EIA laws of Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom (specifically England and Wales). Despite the fact that all three countries have relatively advanced environmental legislation, significant differences could be identified. This book highlights areas in which a harmonisation of community law might be necessary for the sake of the Common European Market.