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Citizens and businesses seeking a permit to carry out a certain activity are often confronted with a range of procedures containing a variety of different time limits, assessment criteria and legal remedies. The establishment of a new power station in the Netherlands, for example, requires a permit for construction, a permit for using or changing street access, a fire safety permit, an exemption from the land-use plan, a water permit and permits under the Dutch Environmental Management Act, the Dutch Flora and Fauna Act and the Dutch Nature Conservation Act. It is at present impossible for a person to obtain a quick and unambiguous answer from a public authority as to whether or not he may carry out a certain activity at a certain location.
Member States of the European Union such as Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands have undertaken initiatives to develop legal frameworks of integrated decision-making. Steps towards an integrated approach to the environment have also been taken at the European level. The majority of European environmental legislation still has a sector-specific nature. However, a change occurred with the IPPC Directive. The IPPC Directive requires a coordinated approach to the various emissions into the air, water and soil from industrial plants covered by the directive. In the near future the IPPC Directive will be replaced by the Directive on Industrial Emissions. The IPPC Directive prescribes a system of integrated environmental permitting.
In this article the legal instrument of integrated environmental permitting is analysed. It describes the concept of integration in the field of environmental law, discusses the integrated approach under the IPPC Directive and gives attention to the recent developments on integrated permitting in the Netherlands. Furthermore, this articles comments on substantive integrated environmental permitting and concludes with some final remarks.

Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Part I Introduction and Comparisons -- 1 In Search of an Effective Model: A Comparative Outlook on Administrative Silence in Europe -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 The National Legal Systems as Background for the Treatment of Timeliness of the Administrative Procedure -- 1.2.1 The Context for Understanding Timeliness of Administrative Procedure -- 1.2.2 The Legal Framework of Administrative Timeliness -- 1.2.3 The Length of Administrative Deadlines -- 1.2.4 Supervision of Administrative Timeliness -- 1.3 Opposing Responses to Administrative Silence: The Negative and the Positive Legal Fictions -- 1.3.1 Intertwining the Basic Models: Negative, Positive, and Complementary Approaches -- 1.3.2 The Negative Model -- 1.3.3 The Positive Model -- 1.4 An Overall Assessment: The Importance of the Legal Design-Lessons Learned from Comparative Law -- 1.5 Conclusion -- References -- Part II The European Union -- 2 Silence of the EU Authorities: The Legal Consequences of Inaction by the EU Administration -- 2.1 The Legal and Administrative Context of Regulating Silence in EU Law -- 2.1.1 The Distribution of Administrative Competences Between the EU and the Member States -- 2.1.2 The Broader Cultural Context of Understanding Timeliness of Administrative Procedure by the EU Authorities -- 2.1.3 The Main Principles of Administrative Law Regarding Timeliness of Administrative Procedures by the EU Authorities -- 2.2 The Legal Framework of Timeliness for EU Institutions -- 2.2.1 General Provisions on Timeliness -- 2.2.2 Sector-Specific Legislation -- The EU Administration as Market Regulator -- The EU Administration as Risk Regulator -- The EU Administration as Funding Actor -- The EU Administration as a Transparent Actor -- The EU Administration as Employer.

1. In Search of an Effective Model: A Comparative Outlook on Administrative Silence in Europe -- 2. Silence of the EU authorities: the legal. consequences of inaction by the EU administration -- 3. Administrative Silence in Germany -- 4. Silence in the French administrative system: a failed revolution? -- 5. Legal Instruments to Confront Administrative Inaction: a Gift for the Citizen but a Curse for the Government? -- 6. Remedies against Administrative Silence in the Netherlands -- 7. Administrative Silence in Italy, Between (Desired) Simplification and (Practical) Complication -- 8. The Sound of Silence in Spain -- 9. Administrative Silence in Portugal -- 10. Legal and Administrative Challenges of Administrative Silence in Slovenia -- 11. Administrative Silence in Croatia: Between Fiction and Reality -- 12. The Privilege of Silence in Serbian Administrative Law -- 13. Using Legal Fictions to Deal with Administrative Silence. The Case of Romania -- 14. Administrative Silence: A Polish Perspective -- 15. Administrative Silence in Lithuania: Case Law and Data from the Administrative Oversight Institutions.

This chapter on Transparancy and Access to Government Information in the Netherlands starts with a summary of information legislation in the Netherlands and provides information about the number of applications for the disclosure of documents. Access to information will the de discussed in detail, in the context of the Government Information (Public Access) Act (WOB), which stipulates that the government is obliged to provide access to information both on the basis of an application and voluntarily. After this the authors focus on legal remedies and on future developments in the Netherlands.