Iryna MAKARENKO

Challenges of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Procedure for Transboundary Projects in the Black Sea Basin

Since the environmental damage from nature and human activities never respects the national borders and is very hard to define for the marine environment, in particular, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) plays an important role in the assessment of its scope and consequences already at the earliest stage, involving political and economic aspects between the neighboring countries and preventing conflicts. The legal tools for development of the EIA procedure in the Black Sea region differ from country to country. Apart from national EIA procedures, some countries in the region are the EU members, and therefore, applying provisions of the EIA-related Directives; some are Contracting Parties to the Espoo and Aarhus Conventions; also the Black Sea countries are members to Regional Environmental Conventions, i.e. Barcelona Convention and Bucharest Convention. The multitude of legal instruments available, overlapping and discrepancies in their application make it extremely important to create the synergy between the procedures and practices with a final aim to enforce the implementation of all the above mentioned legal instruments in the Black Sea basin. Also, one of the crucial elements is to facilitate the better interaction and cooperation between the bilateral and multilateral MEAs in the region considered and to unify the EIA-related documentation and guidelines. The objective of this paper is to present the legal analysis of the EIA legislation applicable and to give some recommendations to policy-makers on its successful implementation in the Black Sea region.

PDF

___

Anonymous 2007. Draft Multilateral agreement among the countries of South-East Europe for implementation of the Convention (ECE/MP.EIA/WG.1/2007/10)

Anonymous 2009. Principles of Environmental Impact Assessment Best Practice, International Association for impact assessment in cooperation with Institute of Environmental Assessment (UK), January 1999

Anonymous 2011. Regional Report on the Implementation of SEA and EIA Laws in Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, June 2011.

Anonymous 2012. Elements for Bilateral and Multilateral co-operation of Espoo Convention http://www.unece.org/env/eia/pubs/subregional_ coop.htm (accessed February 1, 2012)

Birnie, P.W. 2009, International Law and the environment, In: P. Birnie, A. Boyle, C. Redgwell (Eds.),. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, New York, 166 pp.

Borzel, A.T. 2009. Coping with Accession to the European Union. New Modes of Environmental Governance. Palgrave MacMillan, Washington DC, 304 pp.

Grishin, N. 2005. Environmental Impact Assessment of a Transboundary Pipeline in the Black Sea Region (Legal and environmental aspects), Environmental law, Ecoterra Environmental Assessment Agency, the Nederlands.

EIA Directive 2003. Council Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, as amended by Directives 97/11/EC and 2003/35/EC (hereinafter the Environmental Impact Assessment), in the European Union (EU) OJ L 175, 5.7. 85, 40 pp., OJ L 73, 14.3. 97, 5 pp., OJ L 156, 25.6.03, Brussels, 17 pp.

European Commission 2001. Examples of "traditional" EU Directives are: Directive on Drinking Water, Directive on Large Combustion Plants; "new" directives: IPPC Directive, Water Framework Directive, EIA Directive etc., Brussels.

European Commission 2003. Commission Report Shows Inadequate Implementation of Environment Directive, Ip/03/876, Brussels, (23 June 2003)

European Commission 2003. Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the Application and Effectiveness of the EIA Directive (Directive 85/337/EEC as amended by Directive 97/11/EC): How successful are the Member States in implementing the EIA Directive? (June 2003). Brussels. environment/eia/report_en.pdf (February, 2012)

European Commission, 2009. DG Environment, Study concerning the report on the application and effectiveness of the EIA Directive, Final report (June 2009) Brussels.

Peterson, K. and Lahtvee, V. 2007. The Russian Federation and the Espoo Convention: Current Situation and Future Challenges, Estonian Institute for Sustainable Development/Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Centre, SEI Tallinn, 27 pp.

Rosas, J.A. 2006. Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ), 15 September 2006, EU Forum of Judges for the Environment, Eufje Annual Conference: Impact of Natura 2000 on Environmental Licensing, 15-16 September, Helsinki.

Seerden, R.J.G., Heldeweg, M.A. and Deketelaere, K. 2002. Public International Law in the European Union and the United States - A Comparative Analysis', Kluwer Law International, Comparative Environmental Law and Policy Series, 5: 465 - 515.

UNECE 1991. Draft Recommendations on environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context for the Black Sea region, drafted with the support of the secretariat of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo, 1991)

UNECE 2003. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Transboundary EIA provisions and initiatives in selected Regional and Multilateral Environmental Agreements http://www.unece.org/ env/eia/documents/links_between_conventions/Trans boundary%20EIA%20Review%20-%20Shortened.pdf (accessed February 1, 2012)

UNEP 2007. Benefits and costs of transboundary EIA: Applying the UNECE Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, Brochure, UNEP, October 2007.

UNEP Training Manual 2006. Compliance and Enforcement of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), by S. Bankobenza, UNEP (part of UNEP Training Manual, 2006)

URL 1. http://bnr.bg/sites/en/Lifestyle/Politics/Pages/ 0812BulgariaquitsBurgas-Alexandrupolisoilpipeline. aspx

URL 2. http://www.blacksea-commission.org /bssap2009.asp (accessed February 1, 2012)

URL 3. The Blue Stream -Black Sea Gas Pipeline Project, Antonio Tricarico - Eyes on SACE Campaign, September 2001, http://www.eca-watch.org/ problems/oil_gas_mining/caspoil/bluestream.html (accessed February 1, 2012)

URL 4. http://www.unece.org/env/eia/resources /agreements.html (accessed February 1, 2012)