Position Papers

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a key step in the permitting of industrial projects. Ensuring that the EIA Directive sets suitable requirements to assess projects likely to have significant environmental effects on the basis of a comprehensive, cost and time-conscious procedure is, therefore, of utmost importance.

The Non-Energy Extractive Industry Panel (NEEIP) supports the objective to streamline EIA procedures and align the EIA Directive “with the principles of smart regulation”, as expressly stated in the proposal.

However, a substantial number of new requirements introduced by the proposal run against these principles by making the EIA procedure disproportionately complex, costly, unpredictable and longer for both developers and public authorities.

If adopted as such, the proposal would put at risk a number of present and future industrial projects that would otherwise contribute to the concrete realisation of the EU’s widely stated Europe 2020 and industrial policy objectives.

Eurogypsum views is that Resource efficiency should be considered as of one the pillar of sustainable development. We should look towards optimum solutions to the trade-offs that exist between different environmental objectives and the environmental, social and economic imperatives of Sustainable Development. The result should be an economy that optimizes its use of resources and, therefore, results in improved employment, productivity and social cohesion. The chosen indicators should measure the general progress towards such an outcome. Limiting material inputs, without considering realised impacts in the use phase, would not only be unjustified, it would also be inefficient and wasteful.