Priority in environmental and water management permit procedures 

Certain projects can be given priority in environmental and water management permit procedures at the Regional State Administrative Agency. The purpose of priority is to enable faster processing of a permit application at the Regional State Administrative Agency. The permit procedure and consideration will otherwise follow the normal process.

Green transition projects 2023–2026

Operators can request priority processing for their water resource management or environmental permit applications in 2023–2026. Priority will be given to permit applications for green transition projects that take into account the Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) principle.

What kinds of applications can be given priority?

Priority can be granted to applications that concern

1. energy production plants producing energy from renewable energy, and offshore wind farms and related water management projects
2. industrial projects replacing fossil fuels or raw materials with renewable energy or electrification
3. production and utilisation of hydrogen, except for producing hydrogen from fossil fuels
4. capture, utilisation and storage of carbon
5. battery factories and the production, recovery and reuse of battery materials.

Applicants must separately request access to the priority procedure. These requests must include a DNSH report.

The Ministry of the Environment has prepared both a form and guidelines for permit applicants on how to apply for a priority and how to prepare a DNSH report. (Download link for the form (in Finnish) and link to the guidelines.) Submit the form as an appendix to the permit application. If you are requesting priority for a matter that is already pending, send the form to the registry office of the relevant Regional State Administrative Agency. In this case, the register number for the matter must be included in the message.

Critical raw materials projects

Critical raw materials projects that have received strategic status from the European Commission are given priority in the environmental and water management permit procedure without a separate application.

The applicant must clearly indicate the strategic status granted to the project when submitting an application for an environmental and water management permit and attach the decision on the strategic status to the application documents. If an already pending matter receives the status of a strategic project from the Commission, the competent Regional State Administrative Agency must be informed of and supplied with the decision.

The decision on the strategic status has to be attached to the environmental and water management permit application. If the Commission grants strategic status to a project with an already pending environmental and/or water management permit application, the decision on granting the status must be sent to the Regional State Administrative Agency without delay.

Net-zero projects 

As a rule, net-zero projects that have received strategic status from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment get priority in the environmental and water management permit procedure at the Regional State Administrative Agency without a separate application.

A net-zero project can also be a green transition project, such as manufacturing battery materials or carbon capture. In this case, the priority application is submitted in accordance with the guidelines for green transition projects. 

The decision on the strategic status has to be attached to the environmental and water management permit application. If the Ministry of Employment and the Economy grants strategic status to a project with an already pending environmental and/or water management permit application, the decision on granting the status must be sent to the Regional State Administrative Agency without delay.

More information 

For more information, contact the ELY Centres’ and regional state administrative agencies’ customer service for environmental enquiries.

Customer service for environmental enquiries (in Finnish)