Environmental Impact Assessment (Amendment No. 2) Regulations, 2020.

These amending regulations must be read and construed as one with the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations (which provide for a high level of protection of the environment and of human health, to contribute to the effective integration of environmental considerations into the permitting procedure for public and private projects, and to ensure that public and private projects which are likely to have significant impact on the environment are adequately assessed before any development consent is granted). The following regulations of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations are amended: sub-regulation (2) of regulation 6 of the principal regulations is amended by changing the possibility to integrate the environmental impact assessment into the development consent procedure (or into any other relevant procedures or binding decisions that may be required to comply with these regulations) into an obligation. Sub-regulation (6) of regulation 12 of the principal regulations is amended by clarifying the information that the project description statement, made by the Environment and Resources Authority, must indicate. Sub-regulation (5) of regulation 16 is also amended as well as sub-regulation (6), which is modified so as to add a time line for the updating of the information provided to the public in line with sub-regulation (5). Sub-regulation (2) of regulation 19 of the principal regulations shall be amended in order to add the authorities and entities likely to be concerned by the project by reason of their specific environmental responsibilities among the recipients of the EIA report. Sub-regulation (3) of regulation 22 is reworded to add a deadline within which the EIA report shall be made available on the Authority’s website. Regulation 23 of the principal regulations shall be amended, in its point 1 as to include the possibility to the applicant and the public to make comments and representations on the Authority assessment on EIA report, and to the include a 15 days deadline for the Authority to make its assessment available on its website. Point 2 will reflect the introduction of the comments received from the public concerned at any stage of the process pursuant to these regulations, and any other environmental considerations that may be relevant, which shall be given due regard by the Authority in preparing and arriving at its final assessment. Regulation 30 is also slightly reworded as well as regulation 32. Immediately after regulation 32 a new regulation, 32A, adds that, when providing recommendations following the completion of an environmental impact assessment, the Authority shall duly take into account the comments received from the public. Also schedule I is reworded.