The Government approved this Thursday a “simplex” for the environment that provides for the end of the environmental impact study for projects to modernize railway lines or subdivision and the renunciation of the granting of licenses for the reuse of treated wastewater.
EITHER decree-law aimed at simplifying administrative procedures in environmental mattersthe reduction of bureaucracy for companies and the promotion of the circular economy was approved by the Council of Ministers.
The diploma will go into public consultation next week and until September 15, with the Government awaiting final approval at the end of September, it was announced this Thursday during a public presentation in Lisbon.
The presentation of the package of measures, which was based on the work carried out by the Working Group for the Reform of Licenses, took place in the presence of the Prime Minister, António Costa, and the Minister of Environment and Climate Action, Duarte Cordeiro. .
According to the minister, the the proposed measures seek to “make the legal regime for environmental impact assessment more flexibledecarbonize the economy, promote the circular economy, improve the relationship with the public administration and safeguard the environment, that is, the protected areas”.
According to the statement from the Council of Ministers, the decree law approved today provides for “the elimination of redundant licenses, authorizations, acts and procedures, simplifying the activities of companies and helping to encourage investment by reducing administrative burdens and context costs” . .
The note adds that the course is part of the Simplex debureaucratization program and defends “compliance with environmental protection regulations.”
The Government intends to extend the simplification of procedures to other areas, such as urban planning, land planning and industry, commerce and services, and agriculture.
In the simplification measures proposed for the area of the environment, the object of the environmental impact assessment extends to the changes or extensions of productive and transformation projects, “in certain situations”, in the mining, chemical, food, textiles, tanneries, wood, paper and rubber.
The environmental assessment will no longer be mandatory for solar plants, of certain dimensions, and for wind farms, and will no longer be necessary for industrial estates and logistics platforms that have another type of environmental assessment carried out (in this case, the so – called strategic environmental assessment).
As long as the environmental impact statement is favourable, it will not be necessary to make a prior communication to the coordination and territorial development commissions about projects in National Ecological Reserve areas or obtain authorization for the felling or uprooting of cork oaks and holm oaks or an opinion for the use for non-agricultural purposes in areas of the National Agricultural Reserve.
The measures approved today also determine that the environmental license, once granted, does not need to be renewed and that prior communication to the competent authorities is sufficient to carry out recovery work, without altering the original characteristics, of the hydraulic infrastructure and collection of Water.
The license will also be replaced by notice when it comes to reusing water from treated wastewater for use by companies and for washing streets, vehicles, garbage collection equipment, use in toilets and for cooling or energy production.
Source: Observadora
