Amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act

Mar 31, 2023 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

The long-awaited amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (UVP-G) was published in the Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt) on 22 March 2023. The aim of the amendment is to accelerate procedures, especially for energy transition projects.

Key changes are:

• Preliminary procedures: Pre-project Environmental Impact Declarations (Umweltverträglichkeitserklärung, hereinafter EID) assessing anticipated environmental impacts will be given either priority or non-priority status. The data provided therein will be assessed by the competent authorities and will be used to facilitate a structured approach from early stages on.
• Industrial and commercial zones as well as urban development projects are not handled in a single approval procedure. The point is not to approve individual buildings, but the overall project.
• In the EIS, anticipated environmental impacts are to be given either priority or non-priority status. As far as EIS assessment stringency is concerned, coordination with the public authorities is mandatory. 
• The EIS must provide a soil protection plan.
• Objections to all EIA processes must be submitted in writing within the public notice period, otherwise applicants will lose their status as party to the procedure.
• Greenhouse gas emissions must be limited to reflect state of the art. For facilities approved under the Emission Certificate Act, no emission limits may be imposed for direct emissions.

In substance, the amendment will accelerate procedures for energy transition projects as follows:

• A significant change with regard to the setting up of wind power plants has been made at the level of local land-use planning schemes: If land-use planning and zoning regulations are in place for wind power plants in a province at a supra-local level (i.e., if supra-local wind power land-use planning regulations are currently in place), but if no corresponding regulations at the local planning level (zoning-wise) are in place, a wind power plant can be approved even without any such existing planning schemes. In order for such approvals to be granted, however, certain safety regulations must be complied with (primarily those concerning minimum safety distances, but not those pertaining to turbine visibility). Local municipalities shall have party status in this respect. In the complete absence of any current supra-local land-use schemes for wind power or, if no specific sites are designated for wind power use, a permit can be granted with the consent of the local municipality.
• The administrative authority shall refuse to grant suspensive effect to appeals that are not sufficiently well substantiated. 

BGBl I Nr 26/2023 (22.03.2023)