Law on strategic environmental impact assessment.

This Law regulates the conditions, manner and procedure for conducting environmental impact assessments, strategies, programs and development plans, which are adopted in accordance with the law regulating the planning system, spatial and urban plans defined by the law regulating spatial and urban planning, as well as plans and bases adopted in accordance with other laws in the process of preparing and adopting plans and programs. The provisions of this Law shall not apply to plans and programs intended exclusively for mitigating and eliminating the consequences of natural disasters, to financial or budgetary plans and investment plans adopted on the basis of the law regulating the planning system, as well as to plans and programs intended for the defense of the country.
The text is divided into five main thematic Chapters and a total of 43 articles. Titles of these Chapters are as follows: I. Basic provisions; II. Strategic assessment procedure; III. Supervision; IV. Penal provisions; V. Transitional and final provisions.
Strategic assessment is mandatory for plans and programs when there is a possibility that their implementation will cause significant negative consequences for the environment, namely for: 1) plans and programs prepared in the field of spatial and urban planning or land use, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, hunting, energy, mining, industry, transport, waste management, water management, telecommunications, tourism, climate change, which establish a framework for the approval of projects specified in the regulations governing the environmental impact assessment procedure; 2) plans and programs that are subject to an assessment of acceptability for the ecological network in accordance with the regulations governing nature protection; 3) plans and programs that may have an impact on protected areas, natural habitats and the conservation of wild flora and fauna; 4) plans and programmes being prepared for network energy establishing a framework for the approval of strategic energy projects in accordance with the Treaty establishing the Energy Community between the European Community and the Republic of Albania, the Republic of Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Republic of Montenegro, Romania, the Republic of Serbia and the United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. The criteria for determining possible significant direct and indirect environmental impacts of the implementation of plans and programmes and for deciding on the need to prepare a strategic assessment referred to in article 5 (paragraph 2 of this text) are contained in Annex 1.