THE DEVELOPMENT AND CURRENT SITUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT IN SLOVAK REPUBLIC AND HUNGARY

This article is dedicated to the issue of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in the Slovak Republic and Hungary. The purpose of the article is aimed at an evaluation of how environmental assessment was developed in these countries and reflected to the Slovak and Hungarian law systems. We also characterize the current situation of EIA and SEA in these countries. Information for the analysis was mainly obtained from legislative regulations and internal materials of Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic and Ministry of Rural Development of Hungary. The development and current status of EIA and SEA in Slovak Republic and Hungary was evaluated by basic comparative method. The provided evaluation of the current Slovak legislation and its comparison with the situation in Hungary focuses mainly on the development and characteristics of governmental regulations in the field of environmental assessment. Although the main objective and principles of EIA and SEA in these countries are the same, legislative adaptation of these processes is different.