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Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
TRANSBOUNDARY EFFECTS
Gijs van Luyn
InfoMil
Page 1
Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
Transboundary effects are regional effects
• The relevant articles in the IPPC Directive do not
intend to regulate global and trans-European
environmental effects such as global warming and
acidification.
• Only environmental effects which have a regional
impact, like air quality and surface water pollution can
be considered to be transboundary effects in the sense
of the IPPC Directive.
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Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
The relevant legislation
• article 17 of the IPPC-Directive
• article 7 of the EIA-Directive
If significant transboundary effects are to be
expected, the relevant authority has to inform the
neighbouring country of the planned activity and to
give the public of that country the right to voice its
opinion on this activity.
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Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
Competence of the authorities
• Within the Czech IPPC framework assessing if a
certain activity has transboundary effects is important
due to the division of competence between regional and
national authorities.
• Assessment of transboundary effects should take
place at a regional level since the regional competent
authorities have to make an assessment of the
environmental effects of a certain activity anyway.
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Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
Czech procedure
• If there are transboundary effects, the application
is referred to the Ministry of Environment, IPPC
Department as this is the competent body.
• MoE will arrange with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs for contacts to be made with the affected
Member State(s).
• The MoE will ensure that the regional authority is
consulted and kept informed of progress with the
application at all stages during its determination.
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Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
Communication between States
• The communication between the Czech Republic and
its neighbouring countries should take place as early as
possible in the process described above
• It is preferable to have discussions on an informal
level before the official notification to the neighbouring
country of transboundary environmental effects is
given.
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Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
When are environmental effects
transboundary effects?
IPPC directive, article 17 (1): “significant
negative effects on the environment of another
Member State”.
Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
“Significant negative effects”
•A decision has to be made how big an increase of air or
water pollution is considered significant enough to be
regarded as “significant negative effects”.
•A practical solution is that an emission can be considered
insignificant if it contributes less than a certain percentage
of an EU environmental quality standard (or some other
standard derived from another data set) to the general
average environmental quality.
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Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
Methodology for determining the presence
of transboundary effects
A good assessment of the possible environmental effects
is required. A methodology for assessing transboundary
effects should consist of the use of dispersion models as a
test of environmental significance. Based on the data
gathered from the assessment, the question whether the
activity has transboundary effects can be answered quite
easily.
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Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
Dispersion models
• Dispersion of pollutants in surface water and noise
can be quite easily calculated.
• The calculation of dispersion of pollutants into the air
is a different matter.
• In recent years several high-quality dispersion
models of air pollution have been developed which
could be used within the Czech Republic by the
operators and state authorities.
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Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
How to deal with multiple polluters
• When multiple polluters cause certain effects it is of
utmost importance to assess which percentage of the
existing pollution is caused by which polluter.
• This assessment in itself is a basic condition of good
environmental permitting. A proper assessment of the
emissions from a certain activity is vital for writing a
permit.
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Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
Permit writers are advised to:
(a) ensure that the operator has provided the right data on
emissions to all environmental media
(b) check the dispersion model calculations to verify that
they are accurate
(c) apply a test of environmental significance
(d) if transboundary effects are present
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Integrated and Planned Enforcement of
Environmental Law
Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01
Any Questions?
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