This piece explains how the proposed environmental assessment time limit could make infrastructure procurement and delivery more predictable.
A single timetable for the full assessment
The proposed regulation would set a maximum of 300 days for completing the environmental assessment of an individual project, excluding the time taken by the proponent to prepare the environmental impact study. That differs from the European Commission’s December 2025 approach, which set deadlines for separate administrative stages rather than the procedure as a whole. A preliminary screening to decide whether a full assessment is required would have to finish within 45 days, compared with the 60 days initially proposed. An extension of up to 60 days would be available only in exceptional cases, while the public would receive at least 30 days to submit observations on the environmental documentation.
A single contact point for a fragmented process
The measure also targets the administrative structure behind environmental approvals. It would strengthen the environmental one-stop shop, making it the main interlocutor for businesses and giving it responsibility for coordinating the authorities involved and exchanging documents. Project proponents would no longer have to resubmit information already held by public offices, and could reuse data collected for other assessments. Fully digital procedures, based on central online portals and interoperable systems, are intended to reduce duplication and make the route from project approval to construction more predictable. For public buyers and bidders, that could make the timing of works, investment and related tenders easier to plan, although the approval remains separate from the procurement process itself.
Capacity and safeguards remain part of the timetable
The proposed deadlines would depend on administrative capacity as well as legislation. Member states would have to check within 12 months whether the competent authorities have adequate staffing, while the European Commission would monitor personnel and resources every five years. Strategic projects, including zero-emission technologies, critical raw materials, semiconductors, essential medicines, ports, inland waterways and trans-European railways, would receive accelerated judicial procedures and could be recognised as serving an overriding public interest under European nature and water rules. MEPs removed the Commission’s proposed silence-is-consent mechanism for some stages and rejected a restriction on court arguments not raised during the administrative process.
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The proposal is not yet law. The text is expected to go before the European Parliament’s plenary between 23 and 26 November, after which negotiations with the Council of the EU could begin. Its effect on delivery times will depend on both the final regulation and the ability of national authorities to coordinate procedures and provide sufficient resources.
Reported from repubblica.it, 2026-11-04. The Tender Wire is published by Otnox.
