‘Better Regulation’ in Environmental Impact Assessment: The Amended EIA Directive

Directive 2014/52/EU, amending the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive, was adopted in April 2014 after a comprehensive review and consultation process conducted by the European Commission. The amendments are extensive, affecting almost every Article of the pre-existing legislation and introducing important additions. This note discusses the main changes, divided into four broad categories: ‘purely’ procedural requirements, screening, quality and monitoring. The intention is to highlight the potential benefits of the revision, as well as to indicate some remaining gaps and shortcomings. Although not revolutionary, the 2014 amendments constitute an important stage in the development of the EU EIA regime, in particular due to the more prominent role accorded to legal obligations in shaping the EIA process. The Directive is now a more detailed, structured and sophisticated legal instrument, which has the potential to deliver better environmental decision-making by encouraging deeper engagement with environmental issues by developers and competent authorities.