Uptake of strategic environmental assessment in the transport sector

Generic metadata

Classification

Identification

Developments at national level

Until recently, only a relatively small number of countries (forerunners included the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, and Poland) had made formal provision for SEA of policy, plans and programmes. Since the SEA Directive has come into force the number of countries has greatly increased. Some member states are introducing SEA for the first time (e.g. Austria, Greece and Portugal). Others have extended the scope or amended the arrangements of existing national SEA systems (e.g. France, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) (IIED, 2004). Despite this progress many member states still have not implemented the SEA directive after the passing of the deadline on 21 July 2004 (Table 1). However, many of them are expected to do so shortly. In some of those cases, the legal foundation is already in place but the practical guidelines are not fully developed yet.

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Regional differences

Most of the countries who have not implemented the SEA directive on time were old member states, though in many cases these countries already had a national SEA system. In some of the new member states there existed legal frameworks for SEA and substantial practical experience as well, particularly in the Czech Republic and Poland. However, the experience with transport SEAs is still limited (IIED, 2004)

Developments at EU level

The Trans-European Network for Transport (TEN-T) is the single biggest transport infrastructure programme in Europe, but so far, there has still not been a full SEA of the TEN-T. However, the latest directive (2004/884/EC) revising the TEN-T guidelines called for the member states to perform SEAs of TEN-T projects in their own countries.