Amendments to the Regulation on plants and facilities that must have an environmental permit

Today, the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the proposal of the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism, amended and supplemented the Decree determining the plants and facilities that must have an environmental permit.

The addition is that along with the application for the issuance of an environmental permit, the applicant must also submit a certified copy of the legally binding decision on approval for construction.

The annex to this regulation has also been changed, which includes the List of plants and facilities for which the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism issues an environmental permit, and according to activities, this list includes energy, metal production and processing, mineral industry, chemical industry, waste management and other activities.

The annex to the Regulation related to the list of suitable facilities and facilities for which the cantonal ministry issues an environmental permit has also been amended, and this list includes energy, metal production and processing, mineral industry, waste management and other activities.

In the explanation, as the reason for adopting the amendments, it was stated that in the process of issuing environmental permits by applying the Regulation, certain business entities and investors were put in a disadvantageous position compared to others. It was also stated as a reason that at the stage of the application process for the issuance of an environmental permit, some business entities (investors) do not have data related to specific technology, type of plant, and therefore it was not possible to define the best available technologies, the number of discharges (water, air… ), amounts of waste, raw materials and the like, which is why the environmental permits issued by the relevant federal ministry were ineffective.

Given the fact that the main construction project, on the basis of which the building permit is issued, is an adequate document that defines the technology, the output (number) of pollutants, the type of plant, etc., in accordance with a special regulation in the field of construction, this is incorporated in these amendments in the provisions of the Regulation determining plants and facilities that must have an environmental permit.

In addition, the intention of the amendments is that, in accordance with the shared powers in the area of ​​environmental protection between the cantons and the FBiH, the jurisdiction in this area, which is also defined by the Law on Waste Management, will be harmonized. Namely, this law states that the field of waste is under cantonal jurisdiction, that is, that management of all types of waste, as well as the determination of locations and land and facilities, are carried out by cantonal ministries.

Also, thresholds (in numbers and units of measure) were not set for waste management activities in the current regulation, which is now regulated by amendments to the Regulation.