The Current European Normative Frame

Abstract

The rapid introduction of the normative frame on the European scale, both communally and nationally, follows the historical investigation presented in the first chapter of this dissertation, with a double purpose: to define the issues of the current debate on the one hand and to describe the state of the art on the other. Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 27 June 2001 concerning the assessment of effects of certain plans and programmes on the setting was officialised in July of that year, generating a wide range of experiences. It establishes a basic framework that should be adopted by the member states of the European Union. In the previous chapter, we showed the principal steps of the normative path culminating in the SEA directive being adopted. Here, instead, we attempt to define conceptual interpretations, contents, objectives and procedures of the directive. Following a general description of its first decade by establishing an integration of landscape, urbanism and environmental disciplines, we propose a parallel reading with two important motions: the European Landscape Convention, the first international treaty to be exclusively concerned with all dimensions of European landscape, and the Aarhus Convention, a multilateral agreement providing opportunities for citizens to access environmental information.