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The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive entered into force in 1985. Over its more than 20 year long existence, numerous projects in the EU Member States have been subject to the EIA procedure. To what extent the benefits of the EIA Directive outweigh its costs is largely unknown. Up to now, there has been no systematic evaluation of the costs and benefits of the EU’s EIA legislation and its implementation in the Member States. The projects aims therefore at calculating and systematically evaluating  the costs and benefits of the EIA Directive.

To realise these aims different tasks will be addressed:

Literature review
Existing studies will be reviewed to summarise relevant findings. Studies to be considered include:

• Cost and benefit elements in evaluations of national EIA procedures carried out in Member States;
• Studies on costs and benefits of individual EIAs;
• Studies on costs and benefits of specific elements of the EIA procedure (e.g. scoping);
• Other relevant studies both at national and European level.

Conclusions and Recommendations
On the basis of the literature review, conclusions will be drawn which could be generally applicable at EU level on the costs and benefits of implementing the EIA Directive. It is to be expected that most of the information obtained from existing studies will be anecdotal, partial evidence, mostly with a qualitative character.

If the available information in existing studies allows, sectoral variations in the results (with reference to the different project categories included in Annex I and II of the EIA Directive) will be highlighted, as well as the emergence of other patterns, for example in relation to the national planning and legal framework, the presence of federal systems, geographical or economic factors, etc. Furthermore, any recommendations about elements of the Directive which could be improved in order to increase the benefits it delivers or reduce its costs will be given.

Identification of gaps in knowledge
It can be anticipated that the existing studies cover no more than patchy fragments of the entire cost-benefit picture for the EIA Directive in the EU and allow only a limited set of conclusions. An important task will therefore be to identify gaps in information and knowledge relating to the costs and benefits of the EIA Directive and its implementation. The following elements will be addressed:

• lack of knowledge of the costs and/or benefits of specific elements of the EIA procedure (for example screening, public consultation, etc);
• lack of knowledge of the overall costs and/or benefits of applying the EIA Directive, which are not attributable to individual elements of the EIA procedure;
• lack of knowledge of the distribution of costs and/or benefits amongst relevant stakeholders (including developers, authorities, public, environment).

The knowledge gaps will form the basis for formulating recommendations for further studies that may be needed to derive conclusions on the costs and benefits of implementing and applying the EIA Directive. The recommendations will focus on EIA specific issues and will not cover general aspects of cost-benefit analysis such as the use of valuation methods.