Environmental impact assessment to become faster and more efficient

TALLINN - The Ministry of Climate has sent proposals for consultation aimed at making the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process faster and more efficient, significantly reducing bureaucracy.

Changes to the Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Management System Act will, in some cases, speed up the assessment process by up to five months.

"Environmental impact assessment must be an effective, substantive process that ensures the preservation of a good state of the environment and the prevention and reduction of associated damage. These proposed amendments, which may seem technical on the surface, will in substance ensure that the process is faster while maintaining a high level of environmental protection," explained Minister of Environment and Energy Andres Sutt.

The amendments will make the process clearer and faster for developers, permit issuers, experts, and the public. "We identified the needs and opportunities for these changes together with representatives from parties involved in EIAs. Based on their input, the plan is to clearly define which authorities must be involved in a specific assessment procedure to avoid unnecessary delays," explained Rainer Persidski, Head of Environmental Impact Assessment at the Ministry of Climate.

Significant time and bureaucracy savings will result from changing the thresholds for conducting EIAs: a full assessment will only be required when necessary due to a significant environmental impact. For instance, while the closure of a landfill of at least 1.5 hectares previously required a full impact assessment, such a project will no longer automatically mandate an EIA.

The need for a full assessment will be determined by permit issuers during a preliminary evaluation. This decision will be based on a preliminary assessment plan prepared by the developer, which provides a detailed overview of the potential significant environmental impacts of the activity. "More progressive developers have already been preparing these preliminary assessment plans on their own initiative, and it has proven to be a very effective measure for meaningfully guiding and accelerating the process. We are therefore proposing to make this a standard practice," Persidski explained.

In the future, if an activity's impact has been previously assessed and is found to be similar, the scope of the EIA can be defined directly in the initiation decision rather than through a separate program. This change can speed up the process by up to five months. For example, between 2021 and 2025, the Environmental Board initiated 26 EIA procedures for sand, gravel, and peat extraction projects, and it is estimated that this exemption could have been used in about half of those cases.

Steps that do not add substantive value will be eliminated from the EIA process. For example, permit issuers will no longer need to review the EIA program and report repeatedly. The timing of the public discussion on the EIA report will also be adjusted, taking place during the public display period rather than after it, to ensure the public has better opportunities for engagement.

These changes represent the first package in a broader reform of the EIA process. In the coming years, the focus will shift to preparing and developing digital solutions to bring the EIA procedure in line with the expectations of a digital society.

The draft bill is currently undergoing consultation among ministries and is open for public comment from organizations until February 2.