Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment in the Case of the Baltic Sea Gas Pipeline

Abstract

The article examines the transboundary environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure that was applied to the Baltic Sea Gas Pipeline (BSGP). The BSGP is not only the longest offshore pipeline ever planned, but also the transboundary EIA procedure that was applied to it was the most challenging transboundary EIA procedure ever conducted. The procedure involved five origin and nine affected states, that is, all the coastal states of the Baltic Sea. The article examines how the transboundary EIA was organized in this challenging case. It is useful to show how the national EIA system of Finland was integrated into the functioning of the overall transboundary EIA procedure in order to show the complexity involved in organising such large-scale transboundary EIAs. The article ends with an evaluation of whether the responsible officials were able to organise the transboundary EIA in this case in a quality manner and with conclusions as to what can be learned of this procedure for future largescale transboundary EIAs.