More effective, efficient and accountable environmental permits and inspections

The Commission supported the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) to reinforce Portugal’s environmental licensing and inspections regime. Notably, the project provided recommendations for the further improvement of Portugal’s Single Environmental Licensing Scheme (LUA) and thereby to achieve further simplification and harmonisation of Portugal’s environmental licensing procedures.

Context

Since 2015, the Government of Portugal has prioritised streamlining its environmental protection regime, with initiatives such as LUA, Portugal’s National Plan for Environmental Inspection and Enforcement, and the establishment of various IT platforms like the Single Inspection and Monitoring platform for the areas of Agriculture, Sea, and Environment. Despite these advancements, certain administrative and technical gaps still persist. In 2021, APA requested support from the TSI to undertake a comprehensive assessment of its system, focusing on the results and impacts of the LUA framework on the environment and economic activity, and the development of recommendations for its further improvement.

Support delivered

Technical support was delivered for the carrying out of a diagnostic of Portugal’s environmental protection landscape, focusing on APA’s permitting, regulatory enforcement and inspection activities, governance and processes covered by LUA.

Based on this analysis and the results of a multi-stakeholder workshop, the project delivered recommendations on the future governance, inspection and enforcement capabilities, technological improvements of environmental licensing and inspections, and the harmonisation of environmental and economic permits, licencing and inspections to support the further development of LUA in Portugal. 

In addition, the project also supported peer-to-peer exchanges between APA and counterparts in Italy and the Netherlands, to exchange on respective experiences implementing reforms for environmental protection.

Results achieved

The recommendations delivered by the project were well received by stakeholders at the project’s final conference in Lisbon, Portugal on 23 April 2024.

Over the short-term, the implementation of the recommendations is expected to strengthen APA’s institutional capacity, and result in a more effective and efficient system of environmental licensing and inspections, with improved integration between environmental permitting and economic licensing, thereby contributing to reduce administrative costs for businesses when obtaining environmental and economic licenses/ permits.

More about the project

You can read the documents related to the project here: