SEA IN THE CONTEXT OF LANDTUSE PLANNING

The plans and programmes referred to in the directive are limited to those prepared oradopted by an authority. The scope of what is meant by ‘an authority’ is however broad in ECand is defined by its responsibility to carry out relevant tasks according to the Member Stateand not by its legal form. Furthermore, the documents defined as plans or programmes in theMember States may differ- Included in the plans and programmes includes modification tothem, which are treated in the same way as preparation of new plans and requireenvironmental assessment according to the criteria in the Directive. A further definition ofwhat is meant by plans and programmes is not provided in the Directive. According to theEC’s SEA Guidance (1.7) it is open to Member States, in respect of their own nationalsystems, to go further than the minimum requirements of the Directive should they so desireand require that other plans and programmes than those fulfilling the criteria in Article 2 tobe subject to the requirements of the directive.The main steps of the process of preparing plans or programmes are not defined in thedirective. Moreover, it does not provide guidance on how the environmental assessment shallbe carried out, i.e. whether it shall be done as a separate process or integrated in the existingplanning processes. However, the definition of the process in the directive includes thepreparation of plan or programmes through to its adoption.2.5 The relation to other EC directivesThere are certain overlaps between the directive 2001/42/EC and certain other EClegislation that already requires certain environmental assessment, e.g. the Water FrameworkDirective 2000/60/EC, Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC), Waste Framework Directive(75/442/EEC), the Air Quality Framework Directive (96/62/EC), the Habitats Directive(92/43/EEC) and Birds Directive (79/409/EEC) which are the basis of the creation of theNatura 2000 network as well as the directive on EIA Directive 85/337/EC. For some of theplans and programmes required according to other Community laws the requirements maydiffer or require further environmental assessment than those laid down by the directive2001/42/EC. In cases where there are potential overlaps, the directive recommendscoordinated and joint procedures, avoiding duplications of the assessment.The SEA directive resembles most closely the EIA directive 85/337/EEC as amendedby 97/11/EC. The EIA directive is referred to Article 3 as a part of the requirements ofcarrying out a SEA of plans and programmes that set the framework for future developmentconsent of projects listed in Annexes I and II to Directive 85/337/EEC. The EIA directive isfurthermore referred to in Article 11 and in preamble 10 in Directive 2001/42/EC, withregard to request of avoiding duplication between the two processes. With regard to theprocedural steps of the assessment process that are outlined in the directive 2001/42/EC forplans and programmes, there are clear parallels with the main steps of Environmental ImpactAssessment of projects. Compared to the SEA Directive, the EIA Directive does not requireconsultation of other authorities when there is a case by case examination (Article 4(2) of2001/42/EC), and the requirements regarding notification of screening differ between thedirectives, as well as the EIA directive has no requirements on quality or monitoring.In the report to the European Commission (Sheate et al 2005) on the relationshipbetween the EIA and SEA directives, potential areas of overlap between the EIA and SEAdirectives among the EU 15 Member States are identified. The report reviews the experiencesfrom the member states and approaches chosen. The key areas that are considered likely togive rise to the potential overlap between the directives are the following (Sheate et al 2005):• In cases where large projects are of such a scale that they are of more than localsignificance23