The Regulation on Environmental Permit and License ("the New Regulation") is published on the Official Gazette dated 10 September 2014 and numbered 29115. The New Regulation will enter into force on 1 November 2014 and the "Regulation on Permits and Licenses regarding the Environmental Law" ("the Former Regulation") published on the Official Gazette dated 29 April 2009 and numbered 27214 will be abolished.

The purpose of the New Regulation is to clarify the processes and procedures of the application for the certificates, permits and licenses, to overcome the problems in practice causing delays in implementation of the projects and financial loss of the project investors and the operators, to introduce a consolidated, common and clear practice.  The main issues regulated under the New Regulation are as follows;

  • The application, issuance and cancellation procedure for the "temporary activities certificate"1, which is a pre-condition for issuance of the "environmental permit" or "environmental permit and license",2 are stipulated in detail by the New Regulation.
  • The New Regulation introduces significant sanctions such as the cancellation of the temporary activities certificate, environmental permit or environmental permit and license and the suspension of the facility's operation for 90 (ninety) days upon any misinformation or misstatement regarding the documents provided by the license applicant; whereas any permit and/or license with regard to a cancelled application shall be subject to ascending administrative sanctions.
  • Upon the change of the owner or the title of the facility, the New Regulation increases the documentary compliance burden such as the request to provide the Trade Registry Gazette concerning the change, the capacity report and introduces new application requirements e.g. a letter of undertaking declaring that the facility will comply with the current environment permit or environment permit and license.
  • A temporary facility which is engaged in activities for less than a year will not be subject to any environment permits/licenses upon meeting the specified conditions, whereas the provision of the Former Regulation regarding the re-initiation of the permit/license application due to the nonoperation of the facility for three years is not indicated within the New Regulation.
  • As per the New Regulation, temporary activity certificates may be executed electronically for one year, whereas the environmental permits or environmental permits and licenses may be executed electronically for five years and may be renewed upon the application at least 180 days before the expiration date of such permit or license.
  • The above-mentioned certificates, permits and licenses issued within the scope of the Former Regulation will remain valid until the expiration of such document. Any applications filed before the enforcement date of New Regulation shall be subject to the legislation which is in force at the date of application.

Footnotes

1 A Temporary activities certificate is required for the temporary activities of the facility prior to the issuance of the environmental permit and environmental permit and license. The facilities should obtain a permit or a permit and license within one year following the issuance of the certificate. The applicant must finalize the actual application process for the issuance of the Permit or Permit and License within one hundred and eighty (180) days following the issuance of the temporary activities certificate.

2 There are two types of permits set under New Regulation, namely (i) environmental permit (çevre izni) and (ii) environmental permit and license (çevre izni ve lisansı). Environmental permit covers the air emission, environmental noise, deep sea discharge and hazardous waste discharge whereas environment license additionally signifies the technical sufficiency of the related facility.

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