On the first of june 2009, the General Council on Environmental Quality Assessment of the Ministry of Rural, Marine and Natural Environment of the Spanish Government, on the light of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) of the bimep project carried out by AZTI-Tecnalia, decided that the bimep project did not require to carry out the whole Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process. In any case, the Environmental Impact Statement (EISt) of the Ministry, taking into account the great uncertainties about some predicted environmental impacts, underlined the need to implement the proposed Environmental Monitoring Program (EMP) of the EIS. Funded by the Basque Entity of Energy (or Ente Vasco de la Energía (EVE), www.eve.es) and carried out by the Marine Research Division of AZTI-Tecnalia (www.azti.es), the EMP in is preoperational phase started its activities in August 2011. This work review the expected environmental impacts of the bimep project and the methodology of the EMP for the monitoring of hydrodynamics, landscape, benthic communities, ichthyofauna, marine mammals, fishing activity and submarine archaeological and cultural resources.
