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Medved: All EU's Demands Included in EIA Amendment
Friday 05 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, February 5 (TASR) - The Slovak Environment Ministry included all the European Union's demands into amendments to the law on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Environment Minister Jozef Medved said after extraordinary Government session on Friday.
Parliament, as directed by Government, is to deal with this amendment during its ongoing session in a fast-tracked procedure.
Slovakia should therefore not lose money from the EU funds due to the extraordinary legislative measures taken to usher in the fast-tracked construction of motorways through private-public partnership (PPP) funding arrangement passed in 2007, preferring motorway construction over citizens' rights to co-decide over the environment they live in, which is at odds with the EU legislation. The minister thinks that Slovakia will manage to fix this problem to the EU's satisfaction.
According to Medved, the most important change is that as of now the general public or civic initiative will be able to have input in the process of okaying motorways. [Before this amendment, the status of 'public' in this decision-making process was reduced to “present subject”, which means that the authorities responsible for the decision-making are not forced to deal with the public's objections. Following that, the MPs decided to exclude people from decision-making in all projects where the environmental impact is assessed. - ed. note]
Medved said he took up his post in October 2009 – a month after Brussels had red flagged the issue. Since his appointment, the issue has been vigorously dealt with and communication between involved ministries and EU institutions has been extensive.
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