EU Judgment in Case C-727/22 Friends of the Irish Environment: Project Ireland 2040

Friday, 4 October 2024

EU Judgment in Case C-727/22 Friends of the Irish Environment (Project Ireland 2040)

(Environment)

From the Opinion of AG Kokott

The SEA Directive (SEA stands for strategic environmental assessment) governs the environmental assessment in the procedure for the adoption of plans and programmes.

Although the Court has considered the SEA Directive on many occasions, there are still unresolved questions of considerable importance.

The present request for a preliminary ruling concerns two of them: first, the purport of an exemption from the scope of the directive for financial or budget plans and programmes and, second, the assessment of the effects on the environment of alternatives to the plan or programme ultimately adopted.

In particular, the question of the assessment of alternatives is also of interest in connection with other rules of EU environmental law which similarly provide for the consideration of alternatives.

Those questions arise in the context of an action brought by an environmental association against two measures forming part of Ireland’s national development planning.

It is disputed whether one of these measures falls under the abovementioned exemption and whether, in the environmental assessment carried out in respect of the second measure, the effects on the environment of the alternatives were examined sufficiently.

Background Documents C-727/22