Important changes in the decision on environmental conditions

On February 25, 2021, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland passed the Act amending the Act on the provision of information on the environment and its protection, public participation in environmental protection and on environmental impact assessments, and on certain other acts.

The purpose of adopting the amendment is to broaden public access to justice in the field of environmental protection, in line with the guidelines of the European Commission, which raised reservations as to the method of transposition by Poland of Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of December 13, 2011 on the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment.

The most important solutions include:

1. introducing the possibility of suspending the execution of the decision on environmental conditions by the appeal body or the administrative court,
2. the obligation of the competent authority to suspend the development permit proceedings within 7 days after receiving information about the suspension of the execution of the decision on environmental conditions,
3. granting environmental organizations the right to appeal against the development permit and to file a complaint to the administrative court, if the permit was preceded by a decision on environmental conditions.