Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday vetoed and revised an environmental licensing bill that had passed both houses of congress, adding stricter provisions the government said could avoid hurdles to an EU trade deal.
Lula vetoed 63 sections of the bill, based on government technical and legal assessments, that related to promoting sustainable practices, protecting indigenous and traditional peoples' rights, granting legal security to investors and businesses and improving licensing, the government said.
The lower house had passed the bill in July after the senate approved it earlier this year. But that version could create sticking points to the long-awaited Mercosur-EU deal, according to the environment ministry.
One of the main concerns was that the previous draft would have allowed companies to automatically receive environmental licenses, but Lula proposed restricting this to businesses that have low environmental impact and only under limited licensing procedures. The new version also standardized the criteria for environmental licensing across states, strengthened preservation of protected areas and biomes, such as the Atlantic forest, and assigned some responsibility for preventing and mitigating environmental damage to financial institutions.
Lula also signed a provisional measure to immediately introduce a special environmental license — previously expected to come into effect six months after the law would take effect — that prioritizes strategic projects for a streamlined licensing process.
