EIA in Austria

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A cross-media environmental impact assessment (EIA) must be carried out before approval is granted for certain, particularly relevant public and private projects . The environmental impacts of a project are determined, described and evaluated in a comprehensive and integrative manner and must then be taken into account when making the decision in the approval process.

development

  • Since 1985 there has been a directive on the EIA for certain public and private projects in the European Union (85/337 / EEC, EIA-RL) .
  • The implementation of this guideline took place in Austria in 1993 through the Environmental Impact Assessment Act .
  • In 1997 an amendment to the UVP-RL (97/11 / EG) was decided, which also made an extensive adjustment of the Austrian legal situation necessary.
  • This took place when the amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act came into force on August 11, 2000 (UVP-G 2000).
  • Another amendment (UVP-G-Novelle 2004) became necessary from 2003 to implement the Public Participation Directive (2003/35 / EG), which also changed the EIA Directive, into national law. The most important point of this implementation was to give NGOs from the environmental sector a party position in the approval procedures of the EIA. Changes have also been made in the area of ​​the EIA for federal highways and high- speed rail lines in order to make these procedures more European-compliant and legally secure. In addition, responsibilities for expropriations have been regulated more precisely, and adjustments and changes to the law have been carried out on the basis of previous experience in enforcement, the judicature of the ECJ, the environmental senate and public law courts as well as new scientific findings.
  • Another mini-amendment in March 2005 allows the EIA obligation for systems in connection with major international events to be eroded. This law was made with a view to the construction of the football championship stadium in Klagenfurt and the re-establishment of the Formula 1 track in Spielberg . Furthermore, the procedure for driving safety test tracks has been simplified, since the Magna company requested this from Frank Stronach .
  • UVP-G amendment 2009 (in force since August 19, 2009). With this amendment, adjustments to the environmental law of the EU as well as implementation experiences were made. There were no major changes, similar to the 2004 amendment.
  • However, a significant change was brought about by a decision of the Administrative Court on the "Angerschluchtbrücke" (September 30, 2010, 2010/03/0051). In this decision, the VwGH stated that within the framework of the third section it was not sufficient that, according to the decision of the BMVIT, a mere review of the courts of public law was provided. Rather, it requires comprehensive decision-making authority, which is why the BMVIT can appeal to the Environment Senate (and it is necessary to exhaust the appeal).
  • In the meantime, in its decision of June 28, 2011, B254 / 11, the VwGH has effectively reversed the decision of the VwGH on the Angerschlucht Bridge. The VfGH stated that the VwGH's control was very much sufficient to meet the requirements of Union law. The involvement of the environmental senate or another tribunal is therefore not required.
  • The 2012 amendment (Federal Law Gazette I No. 77/2012 of August 2, 2012) introduced an EIA obligation for the promotion of shale gas, special regulations for business parks and urban development projects, and the option of a voluntary EIA. This also resulted in the improvement of the partial concentrations for federal highways and high-speed railway lines (only a partially concentrated procedure in the Ministry of Transport and a partially concentrated procedure by the state government) and, from the legislature's point of view, more practicable rules for hydropower and wind power plants and for changing transport projects. The execution of expropriation proceedings was extended to additional projects. For example, the expropriation regulations for airport projects have been adapted to the Federal Roads Act. A new right of appeal for environmental NGOs against negative EIA assessment decisions is intended to counter EU infringement proceedings due to Austria's failure to implement the Aarhus Convention. It is criticized that an effective public participation in the context of assessment procedures or also the threshold value reduction of various EIA facts, which is often warned from many sides, did not take place through this amendment.
  • With the amendment to administrative jurisdiction 2012, BGBl. I 51/2012, the federal constitutional basis for the introduction of the two-tier administrative jurisdiction in Austria was created. Since January 1, 2014, the Federal Administrative Court (Austria) has been deciding on complaints against decisions under the UVP-G 2000. In EIA assessment procedures and EIA approval procedures, both according to section 2 and section 3 of the UVP-G In 2000, a uniform course of action was established for the Federal Administrative Court.
  • With the Energy Infrastructure Act and the amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act 2000 (Federal Law Gazette I No. 4/2016 of February 23, 2016), a new 6th section "Special provisions for projects of common interest" was added to the energy infrastructure. This section regulates the procedure for projects that are subject to an EIA which are PCI Projects of Common Interests in accordance with Art. 2 No. 4 of Regulation No. 347/2013 / EU (TEN-E-VO). If a PCI reaches the threshold values ​​according to Annex 1 of the UVP-G 2000, an EIA must now be carried out for this project and the concentrated approval procedure according to the UVP-G 2000 applied. For PCI, instead of the otherwise optional preliminary procedure, a “preliminary application section” with public participation in accordance with Section 31 UVP-G 2000 must be carried out. As a reaction to the ECJ ruling "Case C570 / 13, Karoline Gruber v. Independent Administrative Senate for Carinthia" of April 16, 2015 and the subsequent shift in the judiciary of the Administrative Court, the legislature has changed both the 2nd and 3rd section of UVP-G 2000 stipulates that recognized environmental organizations and neighbors - who are not parties to the assessment procedure - are now entitled to lodge a complaint with the Federal Administrative Court against EIA assessment notices.

Books

  • Dieter Altenburger, Wolfgang Berger: Environmental Impact Assessment Act. Commentary on UVP-G 2000 as amended by Federal Law Gazette 2009/87. 2nd updated and expanded edition, based on the 1st edition written by Dieter Altenburger and Petra Wojnar, as of July 31, 2010. LexisNexis-Verlag ARD Orac, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-7007-4448-1 .
  • Dieter Altenburger, Petra Wojnar: Environmental Impact Assessment Act, UVP-G 2000 as amended in Federal Law Gazette I 2005/14. Practice comment. Status 2005. LexisNexis-Verlag ARD Orac, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7007-3281-3 .
  • Christian Baumgartner, Waltraud Petek: Environmental Impact Assessment Act. UVP-G 2000. Short comment. Verlag Österreich, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-7046-0468-2 .
  • Wilhelm Bergthaler, Karl Weber, Johann Wimmer (Ed.): The environmental impact assessment. Practical manual for lawyers and experts. Manz, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-214-02369-1 .
  • Susanna Eberhartinger-Tafill, Astrid Merl: Environmental Impact Assessment Act 2000. UVP-G 2000. Comment. Bohmann, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-901983-61-9 .
  • Daniel Ennöckl, Nicolas Raschauer : Commentary on UVP-G. Environmental Impact Assessment Act. 2nd completely revised and expanded edition. Vienna et al. 2006, ISBN 3-211-31399-0 .
  • Daniel Ennöckl, Nicolas Raschauer (ed.): Legal questions of the EIA procedure before the environmental senate. Status: May 2008. Verlag Österreich, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-7046-5110-5 .
  • Martin Köhler, Stephan Schwarzer: Environmental Impact Assessment Act. Commentary and systematic introduction to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, including the competency bases for the UVP-G, the EIA Directive and the Espoo ECE Convention. Manz et al., Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7007-1204-9 ( short comments on environmental law 3).
  • Bernhard Raschauer : Comment on UVP-G. Environmental Impact Assessment Act. Springer, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-211-82644-0 .
  • Christian Schmelz, Stephan Schwarzer, UVP-G - Environmental Impact Assessment Act 2000 , Großkommentar, Manz, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-214-08112-6 .

Web links