Governments, companies, environmental associations and citizens all over
the European Union (EU) are struggling with large scale projects. On the
one hand large scale projects can contribute to economic development, on
the other hand they often also raise environmental concerns. Because of
their size and potential impact, large scale projects usually lead to
heavy debates and quickly become of great symbolic value. Consequently,
large scale projects are excellent examples of the difficulty to balance
economic development with environmental protection.The types of large
scale projects, planned as well as under construction in the EU, are
very diverse. One can think of all kinds of infrastructure projects
(motorways, railways, waterways, stations, ports, airports, ...),
building projects (offices, housing projects, sports stadiums,
redevelopment of brownfields, ...), waste projects (incineration,
landfill, ...), energy projects (electricity and gas networks, wind
farms, biogas installations, heat networks, extraction projects, ...),
climate projects (CDM projects, ...), water projects, etc.In order to
promote the legal thinking about all kinds of environmental and planning
law aspects of large scale projects, Hasselt University and KU Leuven,
Campus Brussels jointly hosted from 10 to 12 September 2014 the second
European Environmental Law Forum (EELF) Conference, with as central
topic ''Environmental and Planning Law Aspects of Large Scale
Projects''. The conference focused more specifically on the following
aspects: - The role of spatial and environmental planning- Permitting
and review procedures- Critical sectoral regimes- Horizontal
measuresThis book offers a selection of the contributions presented at
the EELF Conference. They have all been submitted to two double-blind
peer reviews.The book is subdivided into six main themes:1. General2.
Public participation3. Environmental impact assessment4. Water5.
Nature6. La
