The SEA Directive and the SEA Protocol Adopted to Spatial Planning: Similarities and Differences

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) was introduced in the Member States of the European Union (EU) when the ‘Directive, 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment’ (Strategic Environmental Assessment(SEA)) went into force on 27 June 2001 and had to be implemented by the Member States until 21 July 2004.