Strategic Environmental Assessment: Amending the EA Directive

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