Mr. Philip Nugent:

The EIA directive is not deterministic. In other words, a project might still have significant adverse effects on the environment but when a planning authority or the competent authority weighs up all the considerations, including the socioeconomic and other aspects it considers, it may still decide that notwithstanding those impacts, the project should still go ahead. The EIA process does not give one a "Yes" or a "No". It says that these are the effects on the environment.