In the middle of July 2024, the Ministry of Energy announced that the Government will make it mandatory for manufacturers of batteries and their components, as well as battery waste managers, to carry out an environmental impact assessment procedure.
Under the current legislation, the battery factory is one of the activities subject to an environmental impact assessment depending on the decision of the environmental authority in a preliminary assessment.
The amendments to the Government decree on the Environmental Impact Assessment and the Single Environmental Use Permission Procedure will enter into effect on 29 October 2024. Annex 1 of the decree lists the activities subject to environmental impact assessment. The list will also include the battery manufacture, including the manufacture of battery components (anode, cathode, electrolyte), lead-acid batteries and separator foil, and the assembly of finished sealed battery cells into modules or modules into battery packs.
The environmental impact assessment procedure covers the (i) determination of the effects of the activities subject to environmental impact assessment on the wildlife and biodiversity, with particular attention to protected natural areas and values and Natura 2000 sites, the landscape, land, air and water, climate, the built environment and elements of cultural heritage, the systems, processes and structure of environmental elements and (ii) the possibility of permission of the activity on that basis.
Otherwise, the decree was also amended recently, in July 2024. It is a new provision that in the case of investments with a value of HUF 500 billion or more if a single environmental permit is required for the commencement of the activity, the user of the environment may apply for a) an environmental permit for obtaining the installation or building permit, b) a single environmental permit for obtaining the occupancy permit. The user of the environment may choose this procedure at its own risk, taking into account that the existence of an installation or building permit issued in the absence of a single permit does not preclude the environmental authority from imposing any additional environmental conditions necessary for obtaining an occupancy permit in the single permit.
By Lidia Suveges, Attorney at law, KCG Partners Law Firm
