EU Commission Pushes for Simplification of Permitting Procedures

The European Commission hosted an event on April 10 on “Implementation Dialogue on Environmental Assessments and Permitting”. The purpose of these types of meetings is to simplify and reduce regulatory and administrative burdens, to make procedures for accessing EU funds and obtaining EU administrative decisions simpler, faster, and lighter.

The need derives from an assessment that projects, particularly large projects in the EU, whether regarding renewable energy, innovative industry or circular economy, are often hindered by lengthy and burdensome administrative procedures. Such impediments slow down the implementation of the project, make funding decisions more complex, and generally create legal uncertainty for the project developer. This is especially onerous when the applicable regulations keep evolving and require multiple modifications to the project before it begins.

France has recently adopted “simplification” regulations, to speed up the review of permit applications files by the administration and streamline certain processes for key projects deemed of “national public interest”. However, environmental NGOs have expressed strong disapproval of such procedures, claiming they tend to deprive the public of participating in project consultation or bypass biodiversity regulations.

In particular, NGOs are currently challenging before the administrative courts a series of decrees dated June 2024 granting the “national public interest” qualification to several large projects. They also triggered the referral before the Constitutional Court of the provisions of the “DADDUE” bill, which would significantly reduce constraints arising out of protected species regulations for many projects.

In the meantime, French judges still apply stringent standards to existing projects. The judicial court of Montpellier ordered on April 7 and on April 10, 2025, to stop two wind turbine farms due to their impact on protected birds of prey.