Environment & Planning Group Update July 2018 - European News

EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS

Edel Grace and Peter Sweetman v An Bord Pleanála (C-164/17)

In a judgment issued on 25 July 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") followed the earlier Opinion of Advocate General Tanchev and held that although measures in a management plan would at a minimum maintain and also potentially increase the amount of suitable habitat available for a protected species they could not be classed as mitigation measures and thereby be included in an appropriate assessment carried out under Article 6(3) of Directive 92/43/EEC (the "Habitats Directive") to determine whether the plan or project would adversely affect the integrity of the site.

The judgment can be found here.