SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 19 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Governing Council has accepted, in its session on Thursday, the delegation of the Yaiza City Council (Lanzarote), in the Autonomous Commission for Environmental Evaluation, of the competence for the strategic, ordinary or simplified environmental evaluation of urban planning instruments municipal authorities, as well as the competence to assess the environmental impact of projects that must be processed and authorized by the City Council.
Law 4/2017 on Land and Protected Natural Areas of the Canary Islands (LSENPC) establishes that the approval, substantial modification and adaptation of territorial, environmental and urban planning instruments will be subject to the environmental evaluation procedure of plans and programs, in the terms contemplated in the basic state legislation and in said Law.
Decree Law 15/2020 on urgent measures to promote the primary, energy, tourism and territorial sectors of the Canary Islands gave a new wording to the LSENPC, enabling the possibility of direct delegation of competence for the environmental evaluation of instruments or projects in the body regional environmental authority, introducing a more agile and effective mechanism than the agreement: a direct intersubjective delegation, which only requires a delegation agreement from the local entity and an acceptance agreement from the Government of the Canary Islands.
The accepted delegation falls on the Collegiate Body for Environmental Evaluation and Single Report of the Canary Islands and more specifically on one of its Commissions: the Autonomous Commission for Environmental Evaluation. It is a collegiate body of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Environmental Planning.
Up to now, 24 delegations of this type have been assumed, divided between strategic environmental evaluation of plans and programs and environmental impact evaluation of projects (both from city councils and councils). Four other delegations of local corporations of the islands are in process.
