Environmental law postponed to January 1, 2022

As expected, the introduction of the Environmental Act has been postponed by one year until January 1, 2022. Minister Ollongren (Home Affairs) announced this in a letter to the Senate and House of Representatives. The government and the umbrella organizations of municipalities, provinces and water boards have reached agreement on this new date for the entry into force of the Environmental Act. With this they want to provide extra time and space for the proper implementation of the law.

In recent months it has become clear that introducing the new environmental law on January 1, 2021 is not feasible. In the extra year, the spatial regulations must be completed and connected to a working Digital System of the Environmental Act (DSO). Users can also become more familiar with the new way of working. The legislative process was delayed, but the corona crisis provided the final push, which led to the one-year postponement.

The new entry into force date must still be approved by parliament; The vote on this will take place after the summer. The debate about the new date of entry into force will be extended beyond the summer so that a debate can be conducted based on recent monitoring data and the results of a practical session on the Digital System for the Environment Act (DSO).

The Association of Dutch Municipalities, the Interprovincial Consultation and the Union of Water Boards support the new date of January 1, 2022 in a joint statement. It is expressly stated that the entry into force date is 'an important milestone' but not the end point.

The aim of the Environmental Act and the associated DSO is to bundle legislation surrounding space, housing, infrastructure, environment, nature and water within one system. The intention is that users of the DSO can centrally request information about regulations with 'one click on the map' and can therefore do business in the field of environmental law and spatial planning more easily and efficiently.

The Environmental Act bundles almost all legislation in the spatial domain and should speed up the cumbersome decision-making process. Introduction of the law was initially scheduled for 2018, but has now been postponed for the third time.

More information can be found at the website of the central government.