Strategic Environmental Assessment: Amending the EA Directive
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The European Commission is at present considering the extension of Environmental Assessment ("EA") requirements to policies, plans, and programmes ("PPPs"), or strategic EA ("SEA"). Under the current EA Directive 85/337/ EEC Mem ber States need to perform EA only at the project level. The inclusion of PPPs in the current directive was hotly contested in the debates leading up to its adoption. Although PPPs were finally excluded from the Directive, the Commission has contemplated since the late 1970s that it would eventually be necessary to require SEA. Indeed, the very nature of environmental assessment makes such an extension crucial. Environmental assessment is a comprehensive process which seeks to provide decision-makers with information about the potential environmental consequences of proposed activities, and to ensure that environmental concerns are incorporated into decision. making. It must be emphasised that EA should intertwine with the planning process from beginningto end. Itis nota hurdle to bejumped at a specific point; rather, it is a continuous process which allows decision-makers to weigh environmental issues on a