Problem kwalifikacji przedsięwzięć na tle koncepcji prawnej ocen oddziaływania przedsięwzięcia na środowisko

The rapidly approaching climate challenges call into question the effectiveness of national and European environmental protection procedures. The author has tried to outline the general legal framework of the EU environmental policy, present the sense and meaning of the Principle of Preventive Actions and the Precautionary Principle, and then describe the EU and national standards regulating the environmental impact assessment procedure. The paper aimed to evaluate the regulation in the scope of the discussed institution, with particular emphasis on those provisions regulating which project shall be made subject to an assessment. For this purpose, the author used the dogmatic-legal method and analyzed the literature. The analysis of the discussed issue showed that, against the background of the current regulations shaping the legal framework for the environmental impact assessment procedure, a specific problem of project qualification emerges. Casuistic exemplification of projects that shall be made subject to an assessment may lead to a specific gap, which enables the implementation of even highly environmentally hazardous investments without the need to conduct an environmental impact assessment. For the institution discussed in this paper to effectively counteract the implementation of any investments that may pose a threat to the environment, it is necessary to change the current regulations shaping its legal framework accordingly.