AUA, one unified form, but many local variants

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The new Unified Environmental Authorisation (“AUA – Autorizzazione Unica Ambientale”) lays out a national standard that each Region may integrate with further requirements.

One national standard, several local variants in practice: this is the glocal concept of AUA, the Unified Environmental Authorisation, which replaces the authorisations set forth by the Italian Presidential Decree 59/2013 for the companies working in the field of waste which are not subject to AIA (Integrated Environmental Authorisation) or VIA (Environmental Impact Assessment). Starting from the 30th of September, all issue, renewal and modification requests of AUA will have to be made using the new unified form, and every Region and Autonomous Province may adapt this form to their current norms.

The form

The new set of forms consists of:

• Request form: data of the manager, of the AUA contact person, of the institution/legal subject, of the plant/activity.
• Forms of the requested authorisations
• List of further documents to submit with the forms (e.g. technical reports).

In case the facilities to be authorized belong to those that have to undergo a preliminary check for the Environmental Impact Assessment (VIA), it is obligatory to submit the results of the screening that determined the exclusion from VIA. Moreover, it is allowed to submit voluntary environmental certifications such as EMAS and Ecolabel. And there is more: local administrations may integrate the AUA with a list of further authorisations, basing on local norms.

When requesting the renewal of AUA, companies may present a self-certification to attest the invariance of their situation, specifying the authorisations they already hold, so as to avoid having to submit them again.

Replaced authorisations

The new AUA unifies the 7 authorisations concerning air, water, waste and noise set forth by the Italian Presidential Decree 59/2013, in addition to the further authorisations required by Regions and Autonomous Provinces, such as the notification of successful waste disposal and/or recycling with simplified procedure laid down in the Italian Legislative Decree 152/2006. AUA is obligatory to request the issue or renewal of the above mentioned authorisations, while it is optional to request the authorisations that are subject to a simple environmental notification and/or to the observance of general authorisations.

Deadlines

Issue and renewal requests must be submitted to the local SUAP (the unified office for manufacturing activities managed at municipal level). The requests must be presented before the expiration date of the first of the authorisations that now compose AUA, and in any case before carrying out any substantial modification of the production plants or activities. The renewal request must be submitted at least six months before the expiration date of the previous AUA.