Summary

Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes entered into force in June 2001, and the Member States were obligated to comply with the directive by July 2004. As set out in the preamble to the Strategic Environment Assessment Directive, the directive is based on Article 174 of the EC Treaty which establishes the objectives and principles of the EC’s environmental policy, and on Article 6 which requires that environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the Community’s policies and activities, with a view to promoting sustainable development. Of the principles noted in Article 174, the precautionary principle and high level of protection are of greatest importance for strategic environmental assessment. Environmental factors must be taken into consideration already upon the making of strategic decisions in order to implement these environmental law principles.

The article examines how strategic environmental assessment procedure can help to ensure the implementation of environmental law principles. The objective of the analysis is to determine the conditions that should be fulfilled in environmental assessment. In the opinion of the author, these conditions can help to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategic environmental assessment directive as well as of the measures implemented by the Member States in transposing the directive. These requirements can also be used to measure the success of the directive and legislation adopted on the basis of the directive in administrative practice.