“A provision that makes life easier for companies, particularly for small and medium-sized ones, the cornerstone of our economy. I think it will be of great help for growth”. So the premier Mario Monti commented on the last intervention launched by cabinet, which it approved today in a preliminary way the regulation for the Single Environmental Authorization (AUA) and the simplification of administrative fulfilments in environmental matters for companies and plants not subject to integrated environmental authorisation.
The provision will now be submitted to the Unified Conference, the Council of State and the parliamentary commissions before the final go-ahead. The Aua simplifies “significantly the administrative formalities, in particular for the small and medium-sized businesses – reads the note from the Government -. Today, environmental regulations force companies to turn to different administrations (Regions, Provinces, Municipalities, Arpa) to obtain the necessary authorizations for production activity. And the picture is further complicated by the fact that these authorizations have different validity periods”.
The new authorization will replace up to seven different procedures and the Regions will be able to further extend the number of acts included in the Aua. After final approval, a single application to the one-stop shop for productive activities (Suap) will suffice.
“Today entrepreneurs are forced to go around the offices to get an environmental authorization – continued the Professor -, but now with this provision they will have a single interlocutor. An example of reform at no cost but with, we hope, relevant benefit”.
The certainty of timing should be guaranteed, because in the event of non-compliance with the deadlines, recourse to substitutive powers is envisaged. Monitoring of the implementation of the single authorization will also be carried out, in collaboration with business associations.
According to Monti, the Single Environmental Authorization is the best way to "reconcile environmental protection with the needs of business life and the reduction of the burdens that businesses have to bear to be in compliance with environmental protection criteria, always and rightly more demanding".
