Chapter 3 SEA EXPERIENCE IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Document begins: Chapter 3 SEA EXPERIENCE IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES Until recently, only a relatively small number of developed countries and state jurisdictions had made formal provision for SEA of policy, plans and programmes. But this group has almost doubled in size following the recent entering into legal force of the European SEA Directive (2001/42/EC) which requires European Union (EU) member states to transpose its requirements into domestic law. Some member states are introducing SEA for the first time (e.g. Austria, Greece and Portugal). Others have extended the scope or amended the arrangements of existing SEA systems (e.g. France, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom). Earlier experience suggests that it will take some time for these new SEA processes to be fully implemented, and even longer before the quality of practice and contribution to decision-making emerge into a coherent pattern. This chapter focuses primarily on SEA experience in countries with well-established, operational systems, which were instituted during the 1990s or earlier in the case of the USA (see Chapter 2). These SEA frameworks predate the EU SEA Directive and, in many cases, the decision to enter into its negotiation taken in 1996. As such, they illustrate the range and types of ...