PROGRAMME

Effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) resides in its capacity to ensure environmentally sound and sustainable development. As an ex ante tool aims to evaluate the most significant potential environmental impacts of a project, both during the construction and operation phase, before the implementation as an attempt for mitigating them. Additionally, environmental monitoring is an imperative part of this demanding procedure. Greece belongs to the European Union (EU) and EIA was firstly introduced based on the novel environmental Law 1650/1986. Thereafter, last major reform occurred with the Law 4014/2011 as amended, which partly transposed the EIA EU Directive 2014/52/EU, contained challenging and innovative provisions mainly including a non - mandatory scoping phase, screening process based on thresholds and inclusive lists, extended duration of environmental licensing, e-governance tools (National Electronic Environmental Registry) intending in a more efficient public consultation etc. Nowadays, questions are raised as to whether the amendment of legislation ensures the protection of the environment alongside the country's development trajectory. Taking into account the global trend for streamlining and simplification of EIA along with the current energy crisis, loss of biodiversity, climate crisis etc. this study aims to explore the effectiveness of EIA implementation in Greece. This evaluation relied on a literature review as well as on an open - ended questionnaire survey, where an extended pool of specialized stakeholders has been involved (EIA consultants, legal experts, environmental permitting authorities’ personnel and NGOs representatives). Regarding EIA study quality, most stakeholders mentioned insufficient consideration of environmental impacts and design alternatives in company with indicating the need for environmental data obtained primarily from field measurements. The same goes for accomplishing higher quality of Appropriate Assessments (AA), required reports for projects and activities located in or close to protected areas. Transparency of EIA studies is typically obtained through the explicated statement of used methods, assumptions and data sources. The latter should be easily accessible for both practitioners and public. Furthermore, despite the recent national Climate Law (passed firstly in 2022) integrate climate change adaptation in environmental permitting, findings emphasize the necessity of incorporating mitigation measures into EIA studies capturing how proposed projects will contribute to make the EU climate-neutral by 2050. Due to the crucial role of environmental inspections by competent authorities, the majority of respondents expressed that strengthening of post-monitoring and audit mechanism is essential. Identified weaknesses include understaffing and inadequate funding of the authorities. To address these issues, the newly controversial measure of private environmental inspectors has been adopted. However, most respondents consider that this could be supporting in case of be associated with establishing an independent Environmental Inspectors' Authority. Last but not least, despite legal provisions aimed at ensuring equitable involvement of all stakeholders in environmental permitting decisions, participants highlighted lack of effective public participation in enabling meaningful engagement. The EIA process should be more responsive to public concerns and feedback. Information sharing, open government and workshops with physical attendance options for those without internet access were recognized fostering inclusivity in EIA procedure. Overall EIA’s effectiveness varies depending on the governance system thus it becomes essential periodically to be reviewed.