Brussels, 08/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday the Parliament and Council succeeded to reach an agreement on a European directive which will compel Member States to facilitate public access to environmental information held by the public authorities. This will be a step towards ratification of the international Aarhus Convention. After long negotiations within the conciliation committee, the two institutions were able to find a balanced compromise. The Council is anxious to abide by the Aarhus Convention (seen to be very ambitious) and Parliament, which wanted to go take transparency in the Union even further.
The common text will make it obligatory for the public authorities to actively assist citizens in their search for information and encourage them to use information technology in their investigations. It also sets out stricter conditions in cases where the authorities cannot disclose a document. Therefore if the authorities use an authorised exception, they will be obliged to register the documents that they have been unable to reveal and when the refusal involves a draft or internal document they will have to provide details to the citizen at the beginning of their request as to the contact they can subsequently seek and the expiry dates of the documents.
Quality standards have been introduced to guarantee that the information provided is up-to-date, accurate and trustworthy. Information on product contamination in the food chain is excluded from the directive's field of application, as it is not considered as environmental information.
The Parliament and Council agreed on the principle of free information to citizens but accepted that, nevertheless, a financial contribution (a nominal sum) could be asked for.
This compromise was approved by a large Parliamentary delegation majority (11 for, one abstention) satisfied that it responds to the wishes of the Parliament for strengthening citizens' rights and obtaining information from the national, regional and local authorities, particularly in cases of river contamination, construction of new projects or destruction of natural habitats for protected species of fauna or flora. Charlotte Cedershïold who led the Parliamentary delegation said that, "In case authorities cannot disclose a document, they will have to motivate such a decision according to specific exceptions limiting their room for secrecy. In practice this will give citizens much better rights to be informed and put the burden on responsible authorities". Hans Christian Schmidt, President of the Council declared that this directive was an important step towards the two domains considered as priorities by the Union and Danish Presidency, openness and co-ownership in environmental policy. "Co-ownership is the cornerstone of the environmental policy of the future. The environment belongs to us all and we carry a responsibility for its sustainable management. Individual citizens must have an opportunity to participate in all the decisions we make. This calls for openness and transparency".
(Once confirmed by the two institutions, the text of the agreement from the conciliation will replace Directive 90/313/ECC of the Council).