ČPŽP 61

vědecká TÉMAta

3/2021

Strategic Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes which Determine the Use of Small Areas at Local Level in Light of the Associazione Italia Nostra Onlus Judgement of the CJEU Abstract The paper focuses on the Czech transposition of the Art. 3 (3) of the SEA Directive which prescribes that plans and programmes which determine the use of small areas at local level are subject to environmental assessment only where the Member States determine that they are likely to have significant environmental effects. Particularly, it analyses the CJEU judgment in the case Associazione Italia Nostra Onlus, C-444/15, and its impact on the compatibility of Czech law with EU law. The author examines the Czech Environmental Assessment Act (2001) and Building Act (2006) and comes to the conclusion that the SEA Directive has indeed been incorrectly transposed into national law. Contrary to the conclusions of the CJEU, the Environmental Assessment Act does not require plans to be adopted by a local authority and also does not ensure that they determine the use of an area which is small in size relative to the territorial jurisdiction of such authority. Furthermore, the Building Act allows that town plans are subject to screening and therefore not always assessed, even though they do not determine the use of an area which is small in size relative to the territorial jurisdiction of municipalities. As a result, a range of plans or programmes in the Czech Republic are only subject to screening instead of full environmental assessment contrary to the SEA Directive. This may even lead to their annulment and the annulment of decisions based on these plans by administrative courts. Keywords: Strategic Environmental Assessment, SEA Directive, Small Areas at Local Level, Associazione Italia Nostra Onlus ♠♠

100

ČESKÉ PRÁVO ŽIVOTNÍHO PROSTŘEDÍ