2. Research methodology
The research methodology was based on the analysis of criteria
and thresholds of projects in the field of mining, pertaining to the
initial stage of the environmental impact assessment, as defined in
the current legislature of the V4 countries (Law of 3.10.2008; The
Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 9.11.2010; Law No. 24/
2006; Law No. 100/2001; Government Decree No. 314/2005 (XII.
25)). When preparing the comparative tables (Tables 2 and 3) the
established guideline was a list of projects, which were in effect in
Slovakia (Law No. 24/2006), since it is the country with the most
detailed regulations in determination of different types of projects,
for example, associated with extraction of coal, kaolin, limestone
etc. (Tables 2 and 3 in column 1). Then, the criteria and thresholds
defined in the EIA Directive and established in relation to the
particular countries were presented in the tables. This approach
required a slight simplification of provisions of the legislation in
force. The limits qualifying the projects to the EIA procedures in
terms of the most rigorous and most lenient criteria and thresholds
were compared in the process of the investigation and the
most significant differences between the regulations in the V4
countries were determined (Gałaś et al., 2015; Gałaś, 2014; Zele-
ňáková et al., 2014).