The European Commission as brought together all existing EU legislation governing environmental impact assessments in order to create a more compact, clearly translated and user-friendly version which comes into force on 17 February 2012. Thus, the administrative burden is reduced and also it helps Member States' authorities and developers to carry out the assessments.

The entering into force of the "codification" (the combination of the original Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive and its three subsequent revisions) is part of an ongoing effort to simplify the EU's regulatory environment. The codification creates a more compact, clearly translated and user-friendly version of the EIA Directive while reducing administrative burden. The European Commission publishes regularly calls for proposals for projects to assess the environmental impact in the EU.

The EIA Directive review process will be concluded later, when the Commission will present its proposal for the revision of the codified Directive. Future changes will concentrate on the content of the Directive, rather than its format. The codification that enters now into force is part of the review of the EIA Directive, a process which started in 2010 and aims to increase the Directive's environmental protection while reducing administrative burden.

The aim of the EIA Directive is to ensure that projects which are likely to have a significant effect on the environment are adequately assessed before they are approved. Hence, before any decision is taken to allow such a project to proceed, its possible impacts on the environment are identified and assessed. It also ensures early public participation in the environmental decision-making procedures. During the project assessment period, members of the public concerned must be kept informed and have the ability to comment on developers' proposals, thus enabling competent authorities and developers to make well-informed decisions.