Environmental Studies and Environmental Impact Assessment

Bratislava, the Capital City of Slovakia, exercises the rights and obligations that arise for it as an affected municipality under Act No. 24/2006 Coll. on Environmental Impact Assessment and on Amendments to Certain Acts, as amended.

According to this Act, an affected municipality is a municipality:

• on whose territory the proposed activity or its amendment is to be implemented,
• or whose territory the proposed strategic document concerns,
• or whose territory may be affected by the impact of the proposed activity, its amendment
• or by the adoption of the proposed strategic document.

Environmental impact assessment is a comprehensive identification, description and evaluation of the expected impacts of proposed activities (projects) – EIA and strategic documents (policies, concepts, plans, programmes) – SEA (Strategic Environmental Assessment).

The Department of Environmental Studies and Technical Infrastructure, as part of its agenda, examines individual components of the environment, their state and development:

• ecological aspects
• the relationship of man to the environment
• environmental context
• lighting conditions
• radon risk
• urban aspects
• transport conditions
• technical-infrastructural aspects
• cultural-historical aspects
• abiotic components (inanimate) – physical phenomena, the rock environment, climate, soil, water...
• biotic components (living) – organisms, ecosystems, plants, animals...
• socioeconomic components
• international perception within the framework of possible cross-border impacts

When assessing environmental impacts, it is always necessary to take into account operational and spatial contexts and to address their cumulative and synergistic impacts.

What are the rights and obligations of Bratislava, the Capital City of Slovakia, in connection with SEA?

• informing the public about an announcement of development of a strategic document and informing them where and when they can inspect the announcing of such a document, take extracts from it, or make copies of it at their own expense
• submitting a written opinion on the announcement of development of a strategic document to the competent authority
• informing the public about the decision from the investigative procedure on assessing the strategic document (whether the strategic document should be assessed)
• discussing the scope of the assessment of the strategic document with the competent authority
• submitting comments to the competent authority on the scope of the assessment of the strategic document after its publication
• informing the public about the strategic document assessment report and the draft strategic document; also, announcing where and when these documents can be inspected, extracts can be taken or copies made at their own expense
• informing the public about public discussion of the strategic document assessment report and the draft strategic document
• submitting a written opinion on the strategic document assessment report and the draft strategic document to the competent authority
• publishing a final opinion on the strategic document assessment and announcing where and when they can be inspected, extracts can be taken or copies made at their own expense

What are the rights and obligations of Bratislava, the Capital City of Slovakia, in connection with EIA?

• submitting an opinion to the competent authority in the procedure on an initiative
• informing the public about the intention while notifying where and when the intention can be inspected, within what period the public can submit comments and the place where comments can be submitted
• submitting a written opinion on the intention to the competent authority
• informing the public about delivery of a notification of the amendment of the proposed activity and where and when such notification can be inspected, within what period the public can submit comments and the place where comments can be submitted
• submitting a written opinion on the notification of the amendment of the proposed activity to the competent authority
• informing the public about the decision issued in the investigation procedure (whether the proposed activity or its amendment should be assessed)
• discussing with the competent authority the scope of assessment of the proposed activity or its amendment and its schedule
• informing the public about the specified scope of the assessment of the proposed activity or its amendment and its schedule
• informing the public about the delivery of the activity assessment report while also notifying where and when the activity assessment report can be inspected, extracts taken or copies made from it at one’s own expense
• ensuring a public discussion on the proposed activity
• submitting a written opinion on the activity assessment report to the competent authority
• publishing a final opinion while also notifying where and when it can be inspected, extracts taken or copies made from it at one’s own expense

Agenda of the Department of Environmental Studies and Technical Infrastructure – Enviro

• preparation of opinions on the environmental impact assessment of intentions and amendments of proposed activities and strategic documents pursuant to Act No. 24/2006 Coll. (protection of air, nature and landscape, greenery, water, waste management, environmental burdens, Territorial System of Ecological Stability/Regional Territorial System of Ecological Stability, Natura 2000, noise, geological hazards, lighting conditions, electromagnetic smog, radon risk, urban, transport, technical-infrastructural, cultural-historical connections, etc.)
• ensuring the organisation of public discussions
• cooperation in the creation of territorial plans of individual settlement components and other spatial planning documents in the field of environmental studies
• processing of documents for the spatial plan
• preparation of opinions on applications for issuing binding opinions on investment plans and investment activities
• cooperation in creating methodologies in the field of spatial planning within organisational units and units of the municipality and the Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava