The Technique of Licensing at European Union Level - Used as a Means of Environmental Protection

Licensing represents one of the modern techniques most often used as an environmental protection means. In concrete, this technique is envisaged in the obligation of obtaining an authorization (lato sensu) in order to develop a certain activity or to use a product or service that is considered to attain an ecological risk, respectively the granting of permits, licences, authorisations or certifications. Authorisation (licensing) is based on the Environmental Impact Assessment, which is a constitutive part of the authorization process, as the conclusions of the environmental impact assessment study are conditioning the result of the authorization process. In order to attain a panoramic and complete reflection of the authorization as an environmental protection legal instrument, we consider to be highly useful the presentation of two transversal instruments, characterised of proactive operativity, a high degree of participation on the part of the involved subjects and a high level of environmental protection that they tend to attain. Basically, these two instruments are Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment