Acceleration of permit-granting for defence readiness projects

The Committee on Security and Defence and the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection jointly adopted the report presented by Lucia YAR (Renew, SK) and Henrik DAHL (EPP, DK) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the acceleration of permit-granting for defence readiness projects.

The relevant committees recommended that the position at first reading adopted by the European Parliament amend the proposal as follows:

Single points of contact

Each Member State should establish an authority as a single point of contact at the relevant administrative level, functioning as a single interface for each defence readiness project.

At the request of the project promoter, the single point of contact should also provide information whether the project could be considered a defence readiness project under this Regulation, as well as information on the required documentation to be submitted as part of the final application.

Project promoters should be allowed to submit any documents relevant to the permit-granting process in electronic form via a secure, interoperable portal. Member States should ensure the digital exchange of documentation between the national authority, the single point of contact and the project promoters.

Where an interoperable online portal is not available, the single point of contact should provide for an alternative submission channel without delaying the time limits set out for the granting of permits and should notify the Commission of a time-bound plan that should not exceed 6 months to achieve full e-processing capability.

The single point of contact should: a) ensure coordination between the competent authorities, and these authorities should have access to all relevant documents in order to facilitate the fast-track procedure; b) also make available to the authorities the relevant and necessary documents of the project promoter to the authorities, where necessary in the permit-granting process.

The Commission should assist the authorities of a Member State that requests it in strengthening the capacities they need to implement the regulation. This assistance may include targeted technical and financial support to help Member States with limited administrative capacities.

Where a defence readiness project is cross-border within the EU, prompt notification and coordination by the single point of contact with the single points of contact of other Member States concerned should be ensured. Member States should ensure that single points of contact collect, process and transmit relevant information in a consistent and timely manner, to contribute to the transparent and comparable monitoring of the implementation of this Regulation across the Union.

Online accessibility of information and accelerated implementation

Member States should make the following information available to the public online, in a centralised and easily accessible manner: a) funding opportunities at Union and Member State level; b) guidelines and templates provided by Member States for standardised permit applications, where available; c) applicable environmental, health and safety laws.

Member States should also need to provide:

- assistance regarding compliance with applicable administrative and reporting obligations, including with Union and national health, environmental, safety, social and labour laws;

- coordination and assistance to project promoters of defence readiness projects with cross-border dimension and coordination for core defence production assets;

- SME support mechanisms within the single point of contact, which include a dedicated SME desk providing tailored guidance and early advisory services to SMEs, mid-caps, and small mid-cap enterprises.

Duration of the permit-granting process

Members proposed that the permit-granting process for defence readiness projects, including notification of the outcome of that process, should not exceed 50 working days (60 days in the Commission's proposal) from the date of the acknowledgement of the completeness of the permit-granting application by the single point of contact. In exceptional cases, where the nature, location or size of the proposed defence readiness project so requires, a Member State may once extend the time limits by a maximum of 25 working days (instead of 30 days) before their expiry and on a case-by-case basis.

Where a Member State considers that there is evidence that the defence readiness project is of exceptional complexity, raises exceptional risks for the health and safety of workers or where a specific national security clearance is required, that Member States may extend the permit-granting process by 50 working days, within 25 working days of the start of the permit-granting process. The applicable time limit for the permit-granting process should commence on the date of the acknowledgment of the completeness of the permit-granting application.

Where the single point of contact does not inform the project promoter of the outcome of the permit-granting process within the time limit set out, the permits covered by the application should be deemed to be granted, unless the principle of administrative tacit approval has been excluded for these types of procedures by the national legal system of the Member state concerned. The single point of contact shall within 10 days, without undue delay but not later than within 3 working days.

Monitoring and reporting

For the purposes of transparency, ex-post monitoring and Union-wide comparability, each Member State will have to submit an annual statistical report to the Commission on the application of the regulation.