1.

Nature of the environmental impact assessment process

The basic objective of the environmental and public health impact assessment process, which is governed in the Czech Republic by Act No. 100/2001 Sb. (hereinafter referred to as the “EIA Act”), is to find a balanced compromise between the development of the territory and the protection of the environment. Through this process, the public concern is specified and its significance for society measured in a context of sustainable development. In a simplified approach, the EIA/SEA optics can be used to measure the public concern, for example, in protecting valuable ecosystems, improving air quality or increasing employment. The purpose of the environmental impact assessment is to obtain an objective professional foundation for issuing a decision (...) and thereby contribute to sustainable development of the society (Section 1(3) of EIA Act). The task of this process is to find the most appropriate solution possible for effective changes in the land use both at the conceptual umbrella level (strategic) and at the level of specific projects.

For a qualified decision to be made, it is important to thoroughly analyse and interpret the properties of the environment in a complex strategy and on this basis, in a context of generally or specifically defined future changes of the territory, to predict the possible impacts on individual compartments of the environment (even in relation to each other). If the conclusions of the assessment show that there is a predominance of environmental concern over the socio-economic ones, the project or strategy cannot proceed to the next authorization step (there is a dissenting opinion on the project or, if necessary, the draft strategy should be reworked in the sense of recommendations resulting from the SEA). If environmental changes are assessed as insignificant or the possibility of eliminating them is permissible, the change (whether at the project or strategy level) can be approved for environmental and public health impacts with a simultaneous setting of compensatory (mitigating) measures. The Ministry of the Environment or any relevant department of the regional authority is responsible for the course of the EIA and SEA processes, in effective cooperation with the relevant state administration bodies.