Opinion in Case C-575/21 Wertinvest Hotelbetrieb

Thursday 24th November 2022

Opinion in Case C-575/21 Wertinvest Hotelbetrieb

(Environment)

The undertaking WertInvest Hotelbetrieb seeks to carry out a building project, the so called the New Haymarket project, in the historic center of Vienna (Austria), a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The project, which due in particular to its location, has given rise to some controversy, involves the demolition of the existing InterContinental hotel and its replacement with several new structures, including a 19 storey tower building, for hotel, commercial, conference, residential and office use, to include an underground ice rink, a sports hall, a swimming pool and a car park with 275 parking spaces. It will occupy around

1.55 ha and has a gross floor area of around 89 000 m2. Thus, it does not attain the thresholds laid down under Austrian law rendering an environmental impact assessment necessary (namely at least 15 ha and a gross floor area in excess of 150,000 m²).

WertInvest Hotelbetrieb commenced an action for failure to act before the Administrative Court of Vienna to require the City Administration to issue a building permit.

The Administrative Court of Vienna considers it necessary to establish whether the New Haymarket project requires that an environmental impact assessment be carried out. It points out that this project is one of the most significant urban development projects in Vienna since the end of World War II.

Since Austrian law does not set any thresholds or criteria relating to the location or nature of urban development projects that would trigger an obligation to carry out an environmental impact assessment nor contemplate an examination on a case-by-case basis of the need to carry out such assessment for an urban development project in an area listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Administrative Court of Vienna wonders whether that legislation is compatible with EU law.

It therefore submitted a series of questions to the Court of Justice regarding Directive 2011/92 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment.

Background Documents C-575/21