ECRAN Regional Workshop on Appropriate Assessment of the Lake Tuz Pilot Site (Natura 2000) part II
Date: 27-28.10.2015
Place: Ankara, Turkey
Organizer: ECRAN Secretariat with EC TAIEX Unit
Within the ECRAN project, one of its activities is devoted to pilot AAs. Three of them have been
agreed on – in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. At each pilot location,
following events took or are going to take place:
- selection of suitable pilot site (future Natura 2000 site) and project to be assessed;
- the first AA workshop for staff expected to deal with AA as well as representatives of relevant NGOs, focusing on theoretical and legislative basis of AA and its first step – screening;
- field assessment of the pilot project on the pilot site;
- the second AA workshop for the same audience as the first one, focusing on demonstration of the pilot AA, exercises enabling to better understand the principles and rules of AA, as well as presentation of the remaining EU legislative background.
The objective of the series of both sub-regional workshops is to provide ECRAN Beneficiaries with
the complete picture of the AA from its very beginning (screening) up to the final decision on the
acceptability of the project and to make them familiar also with the derogation procedure according
to Art. 6(4) of the Habitats Directive.
This event is the second AA workshop dealing with the Turkish pilot intended for participants from
Turkey. Participants from other ECRAN countries can take part if they are specifically interested in
this pilot or if for some reason cannot participate in the other workshop organised on the other pilot
sites closer to their country of origin.
Objectives of the Workshop
- Main assessment and taking decision on imperative reasons of overriding public interests, what forms they may have and what kind of data they require;
- Practical demonstration of the main assessment on a real pilot site (future Natura 2000 site) of the pilot project;
- An interactive main assessment exercise aimed at enabling the participants to train their competence to control the procedure of AA;
- Presentation of the correct interpretation of the derogation procedure pursuant to Art. 6(4) of the Habitats Directive;
- Practical recommendation as to establishment of the AA system in countries willing to join the EU.
Expected Results of the meeting
The expected results are the following:
- Familiarization with the requirements of main AA assessment;
- Getting practical experience with main assessment on the example of the pilot site and the pilot project;
- Improved capacity to establish the national AA system.
