Purposes, paradigms and pressure groups: Accountability and sustainability in EU environmental assessment, 1985–2010

Twenty five years since the introduction of the European Union (EU) environmental impact assessment (EIA) Directive in 1985 this paper reflects on the extent to which environmental assessment (EA) processes, over the course of their evolution over the last 25 years in the EU, have provided a platform for enhancing accountability and sustainability. Surprisingly—in the context of legal mandates for EA—there is little reference in the EA literature explicitly to the literature on accountability and the role EA may play in this increasingly important aspect of governance. The paper explores EA implementation principally from an environmentalist perspective and particularly the way in which NGOs and other advocates for the environment in the UK and EU have used the EA legislation as a lever for increasing democratic, corporate and professional accountability of proponents and decision-makers alike. From an a historical analysis, including two historical EIA case studies and two contemporary SEA case studies, it becomes clear that EA has had an important role to play—at the legislative level in providing the requirements for accountability, and at the implementation level as the lever that can be used to hold individuals, organisations and authorities to account for their actions. The relationship with the shift to sustainability is a close one, since sustainable development demands greater public involvement in decision-making and greater accountability of executive decisions to the public. The lessons from this analysis allow the development of a nascent policy-oriented theory regarding EA's role in accountability, which provides a framework for a distinctive new area of EA research and policy analysis. Moreover, an accountability perspective on EA could help re-frame EA for policy makers from being purely an informational and procedural instrument to one which promotes better accountability and sustainability simultaneously.

► Little attention in the literature to environmental assessment (EA) and accountability. ► Evolution of EA in the EU influenced by shifting policy paradigms and demands for accountability. ► EIA and SEA, as formal procedures, can provide platforms for accountability. ► Four case studies illustrate how NGOs and others have used EA to further accountability. ► A policy-oriented theory provides a basis for considering future evolution of EA in the EU.