The Committee on Constitution, Justice, and Citizenship of the Senate approved, on April, a Proposal of Amendment to the Federal Constitution (PEC) no. 65 of 2012, which includes the Paragraph 7 to article 225 of the Constitution, altering the environmental licensing rules.
The referred provision to be included in the Federal Constitution lays down that "the presentation of a previous study of environmental impact entails authorization for execution of the works, which cannot be neither suspended nor cancelled by the same reasons unless in view of a supervening fact".
It is well known that the term of the works generally extends, due to, among other reasons, environmental licensing related matters, standing out among them the time spent by the licensing agency to analyse the environmental study impact, as well as due to suspension of the license resulting from matters subsequent to the concession.
The Constitutional Amendment Proposal seeks to ensure celerity and economy of resources in all ventures subject to environmental licensing, given that after presentation of the environmental impact study, the construction works automatically receives the license, and the suspension or cancellation of the license, and consequently, of the construction works, will only occur in the event of supervening facts that prevent the continuity the works.
It is worth mentioning the existing strong political interest in the approval of the PEC, having been singled out as one of the motives for its approval the fact that, according to the rules currently in force, many government officials and rulers of the three administrative spheres, are unable to fulfill, in their respective terms of office, the measures they put forward in their governmental policy.
The proposal was sent to the Senate to be voted in a plenary session.
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