SUMMARY
In this article, we analyse new amendments passed or prepared withing the European Union since introducing the Council directive No. 85/337/EEC on environmental impact assessment of some public and private projects. The paper does not set an exhaustive rendering of all these questions as a goal. We analyse more in detail three directives of the European communities passed after 1994 (i.e. since the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No. 127/1994 on environmental impact assessment has become operative) because we consider them crucial in respect to environmental impact assessment (EIA). Moreover, information on further significant international activities bringing a new dimension into EIA is also included in the article. Then we briefly characterise the global worldwide trends in the EIA development as they are presented by world experts in the given domain. In conclusion we comment the relevance of these new directions and trends in the field of EIA in relation to the Act No. 127/1994.