Editorial note

Council Directive 2001/42 of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of certain plans and programmes on the environment is aimed at providing a high level of protection of the environment and at promoting sustainable development, by ensuring that an environmental impact assessment is carried out on certain plans and programmes which are likely to have significant effects on the environment (Article 1 and Article 3). Plans and programmes for the purposes of the Directive are ‘plans and programmes, including those co-financed by the European Community, as well as any modifications to them: which are subject to preparation and/or adoption by an authority at national, regional or local level or which are prepared by an authority for adoption, through a legislative procedure by Parliament or Government, and which are required by legislative, regulatory or administrative provisions’ (Article 2(a)).

An environmental assessment is to be carried out for all plans and programmes which are prepared for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, industry, transport, waste management, water management, telecommunications, tourism, town and country planning or land use and which set the framework for future development consent of projects listed in Annexes I and II to Directive 85/337/EEC, or which, in view of the likely effect on sites, have been determined to require an assessment pursuant to Article 6 or 7 of Directive 92/43/EEC (Habitat Directive) (Article 3(1)). If such plans and programmes determine the use of small areas at local level and minor modifications to plans and programmes, they are to require an environmental assessment only where the Member States determine that they are likely to have significant environmental effects (Article 3(2)).