“1. An environmental assessment, in accordance with articles 4 to 9, shall be carried out for plans and programmes referred to in paragraphs 2 to 4 which are likely to have significant environmental effects. 2. Subject to paragraph 3, an environmental assessment shall be carried out for all plans and programmes, (a) which are prepared for … town and country planning or land use and which set the framework for future development consent of projects listed in Annexes I and II to [the EIA Directive] … … 4. Member states shall determine whether plans and programmes, other than those referred to in paragraph 2, which set the framework for future development consent of projects, are likely to have significant environmental effects.”
“61. … [The] court has held that the notion of “plans and programmes” relates to any measure which establishes, by defining rules and procedures, a significant body of criteria and detailed rules for the grant and implementation of one or more projects likely to have significant effects on the environment … . 62. In the present case, it is apparent … that the decree of14 April 2016 designates a Natura 2000 site, and, in order to achieve the conservation and protection objectives it defines, provides for preventive measures and lays down general and specific prohibitions. To that end, it reflects choices and forms part of a hierarchy of measures intended to protect the environment, in particular the management plans to be adopted in the future. 63. … [The] referring court notes that the designation of a site has legal effects on the adoption of plans and on the consideration of applications for permits affecting the site, both procedurally and in terms of the criteria according to which decisions are made. That court therefore takes the view that such a designation contributes to setting the framework for activities that are, in principle, to be accepted, encouraged or prohibited, and thus is not unconnected with the concept of “plan or programme”. 64. It is apparent from the judgments in[IEB 2]at [55] … and Thybaut at [55] … that the concept of “significant body of criteria and detailed rules” must be construed qualitatively.”
“56. … [Although] a consolidation area … does not in itself lay down any positive requirements, it does, however, allow for derogation from existing requirements for plans. [The referring court] has made it clear that determining the boundaries of the consolidation area in the contested order amounts to accepting the principle of a future urban development plan, which will be able to be carried out by means of derogations from the planning requirements in force being granted more easily. … [Under] Article 127(3) of the Walloon Code and the requirements laid down by it, planning permissions given for the geographical area within a consolidation area may depart from the sectoral plan, a municipal development plan and local planning rules. 57. In that regard, in so far as a sectoral plan, a municipal development plan and local planning rules are themselves plans and programmes within the meaning of the SEA Directive, a consolidation area, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, given that it amends the framework laid down by those plans, must also be characterised as such and be subject to the same rules of law. 58. It follows that, although such an instrument does not, and cannot, lay down positive requirements, the possibility which it lays down of allowing a derogation from the planning rules in force to be obtained more easily amends the legal process and consequently brings the consolidation area at issue in the main proceedings within the scope of Article 2(a) and Article 3(2)(a) of the SEA Directive.”
“125 … [That] is not because the SEA Directive has no application to projects authorised in that way. It isbecause (i) the SEA Directive does not require member states to have plans or programmes which set the framework for future development consent, but only regulates the consequences if they do; (ii) where development consent is granted by specific legislation there are usually no plans or programmes which set the framework for that consent; and (iii) legislative grants of development consent are exempt from the EIA Directive by virtue of article 1(4), subject to conditions which replicate some of the benefits of a requirement for environmental impact assessment …”
“126 … I think it clear that the [HS2] Bill, if passed, will not set the framework for future development consent. Clause 19 deems planning permission to be granted and authorises the development. An Act in these terms would not be part of the process by which the development consent is granted. It would be the ultimate decision. It would itself be the development consent.”
“(12) The local planning authority must, when determining an application – (a) take into account relevant representations made to them …; and (b) have regard to the [NPPF] … so far as relevant to the subject matter of the prior approval, as if the application were a planning application.” (a) take into account relevant representations made to them …; and (b) have regard to the [NPPF] … so far as relevant to the subject matter of the prior approval, as if the application were a planning application.”
“89. We can deal with SI 2020/757 shortly. We agree with [Mr Rupert Warren Q.C., for the Secretary of State,] that a legal measure such as the UCO 1987, which simply defines whether certain changes of use constitute development for the purposes of development control, cannot be described as setting a framework for the grant of future development consents. By definition, it does no such thing. We note that the CJEU took the same approach in Compagnie d’entreprises … (Advocate General, points 90-92 and judgment, paras 63-66).”
“95. In the case of SI 2020/755 and SI 2020/756, the statutory instruments themselves granted planning permission for the carrying out of development falling within the scope of PD rights as defined in the Order itself. That follows from the wording of section 59(2) of the TCPA which provides that a development order may “itself grant planning permission for the development specified in the order” and article 3(1) of the GPDO which provides that “planning permission is … granted for the classes of development described”