Constitutional review of the Interventional measures amending the Building Act

On 2 July 2020, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia accepted for consideration the petition to initiate the review procedure of the constitutionality of Article 2 ZIUOOPE (PKP-3) in connection with Articles 100.d(4), 100.e, 100.f and 100.g(2) ZIUZEOP (PKP-1). The Constitutional Court suspended the implementation of the said Articles until the final decision is adopted. The Slovene version of the decision is available at the following hyperlink.

With the above Articles, the provisions of the Building Act (hereinafter: GZ) were temporarily amended – that is, until 31 December 2020 – so that the condition for the lawful commencment of the construction is no longer that the building permit becomes final (sl. pravnomočnost) – that is, no regular legal remedy (appeal in the judicial procedure) is available – but that there are no longer any possibilities of appeal against the building permit in the administrative procedure (sl. dokončnost) (see in particular Article 101.f ZIUZEOP). Additionally, the said Articles prescribe additional conditions that the non-governmental organisations (hereinafter: NGO) must fulfil in order to be able to participate in the procedures for the issuance of the building permit (see in particular Articles 100.f, 100.g and 100.d ZIUZEOP). The petitioners claimed in particular that the contested Articles allow for the issuance of the building permits in the integral procedure – the procedure for the issuance of the building permit for the facilities that affect the environment – even without the participation of the NGOs. The Constitutional Court assessed that the construction of the facilities under the amended framework could result in difficult to remedy harmful consequences that would be difficult or impossible to remedy (point 20). Constitutional Court consequently suspended the implementation of the said Articles until the final decision is adopted, which as per the Constitutional Court means that the NGOs can participate in the integral procedures for the issuance of the building permits under the conditions prescribed by the GZ (point 21).

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Law Firm Kavčič, Bračun & Partners, o.p., d.o.o

Ljubljana, 15 July 2020

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