Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) represented Seanergy S.r.l. (“Seanergy”) in its challenge before the Apulia Regional Administrative Court regarding a 1 GW offshore wind project to be built in the Gulf of Manfredonia in the southern Apulia region.
The challenge was against the silence of the Ministry of the Environment in relation to the Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) procedure required for the construction of the project to begin.
By accepting Seanergy’s arguments, the administrative judge confirmed the applicability to the EIA procedure of the tacit approval mechanism between public administrations. Therefore, in the event of inaction by the Ministry of Culture, its assent must be considered to have been achieved by tacit approval.
The ruling also clarified that, in the absence of a precise provision for the matter, the deadline for the expression of the assent from the Ministry of Culture runs from the date of receipt of the opinion rendered by the Technical Commission of the Ministry of the Environment.
The Court thus condemned the Ministry of the Environment to adopt the EIA measure, with the important clarification that “the ascertained formation of the tacit approval with regard to the act of assent within the competence of the MIC” remains unchanged.
Seanergy is a subsidiary of ATS group specialising in development and production of renewable energy.
The WFW Administrative and Regulatory team that advised Seanergy was led by Partner Giannalberto Mazzei, working closely with Associate Cesare Fossati.
Giannalberto commented: “The ruling is important for everyone with a project subject to a national EIA and for which the deadline given to the Ministry of Culture for the expression of assent has expired and which can now be considered tacitly acquired”.
