Green Legal Impact: EC failed to state reasons for Strategic Projects decision

The report said that the European Commission said that all the 13 listed projects meet the criteria under the EU regulation on Critical Raw Materials but added that the decision does not include an explanation of how the projects, including Jadar, satisfy sustainability requirements or any factual or legal reasoning to grant strategic status.

“This omission gives rise to a breach of the Commission’s duty to state reasons and creates legal uncertainty for affected communities, national permitting authorities and companies,” the report said.

It said that the omission “particularly grave” because the projects will have considerable environmental impacts, it is based on a forecasting assessment of the environmental development of raw materials projects over a long span of time without an Environmental Impact Assessment, the Commission failed to identify the independent experts who took part in making the decision, there was no public consultation and the Commission failed to disclose how it gathered facts.

“This is a textbook failure to state reasons. Such an essential procedural defect renders the Decision highly vulnerable to challenge and potential annulment,” Green Legal Impact said and recalled instances of the European Court of Justice annulments in similar circumstances.