Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 Page 1 TRANSBOUNDARY EFFECTS Gijs van Luyn InfoMil

Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 Page 2 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. Transboundary effects are regional effects

Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 Page 3 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.

Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 Page 4 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. Competence of the authorities

Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 Page 5 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. Czech procedure

Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 Page 6 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.

When are environmental effects transboundary effects? Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 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 Page 8 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. “Significant negative effects”

Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 Page 9 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.

Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 Page 10 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.

Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 Page 11 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.

Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 Page 12 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

Integrated and Planned Enforcement of Environmental Law Phare Twinning Project CZ03/IB/EN/01 Page 13 Any Questions?