From 9 am on Thursday, 8 March 2007, the hearing on the planned extension of the thermal waste utilisation plant operated by EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ was held at the Donauhof/Zwentendorf. A milestone in the environmental impact assessment procedure, it was open to all comers, because the citizens of Zwentendorf and the surrounding communities are official parties to the legal proceedings.

The hearing was convened and organised by the competent government authority. It consisted of five phases: First, Johann Lang, the chairman delegated by the government authority, took the floor. He welcomed all comers and presented both the project and the government experts involved in the project. Next, Franz Mittermayer, managing director of EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ, presented a detailed overview of the project. This was followed by government experts who each discussed their aspects of the environmental impact assessment within their respective field of competence and their own analysis of the environmental impact expected by the plant extension. Following them, citizens were given an opportunity to comment. This was used especially by the people living next to the Moosbierbaum railway station, representatives from the neighbouring communities and from the Citizens Board of Zwentendorf, as well as by the Lower Austrian Environmental Ombudsman. After a lunch break, the outcome of the hearing was recorded in a protocol that included the stipulations made by the experts and the comments forwarded by the communities and the Citizens Board.

With this hearing, the environmental impact assessment has entered its final stage, after the preparation of an environmental impact statement, its filing with the competent government authority on 31 May 2006, its assessment by the licensing authority at the Government of Lower Austria which issued an expert opinion on it, and the publication of both the statement and the expert opinion. The next step will be a notice published by the competent authority at the Government of Lower Austria.